Back From The Ashes
by secretstories98
Summary: Hurt and anger, Orihime knew these feelings like no one else. Ulquiorra disappeared from her life five years ago, and she has suffered every day since. Now he's back. What happened to him? Where has he been? Can they pick up where they left off? Beware: Physical Abuse is a topic in this story. May be unfit for some readers.
1. Chapter 1-Hurt and Suprises

He reached his hand out to her. His emerald eyes begging her to help him. She moved to take his hand and with just a few inches between them, he disintegrated. The man she loved has turned into nothing but ashes, the wind blowing him away from her. That was it. That was all she could take. She sunk to the ground, crying his name.

"Ulquiorra!" Orihime screamed, waking up from the nightmare she had been having. She took in her surroundings, the usual sorrow settling in. She had been having this same exact nightmare for five years now and it never got any easier for her. Pushing up from the bed, she pushed the dream from her mind. Letting it go was easier than thinking about it, it hurt a lot less. Drenched in sweat, she decided it would be best to take a shower. She closed her eyes as the hot water pounded against her flushed skin and, like always, the same emerald eyes were there waiting for her. Those eyes haunted her. She couldn't get them out of her mind. His eyes no longer begged her to help him. Those beautiful green orbs showed no emotion other than anger. She knew why he was angry, she was angry at herself for the same exact thing. She was unable to save him. That fact ate away at her more than anything else. Refusing to dwell on it anymore, she opened her eyes and decided that her shower was over. She went about her morning in the same way she always had. After she was dressed and had deemed herself as presentable, she left for class. A lot had changed in the past five years. She was now a university student, working towards getting into Med School. Pre-med was hard though and she spent most of her time studying.

She was walking towards the library when she heard a familiar voice say her name. Turning, she saw that it was Ichigo. They had remained close, despite the fact that he was the reason she was suffering every night. She no longer loved him like she used to, but they could still remain as friends. "Where you heading?", Ichigo asked, falling into step beside her. "I have a chemistry test today and the library is calling my name." Orihime answered. Ichigo smiled at her response, "Why don't you study outside today? It's beautiful out and you should stop locking yourself inside. You could totally use some sun. You're as white as a ghost". Orihime didn't really like studying outside. There were too many things to get distracted with. But, looking down at herself, she realized that he was right. Her skin was looking a little ghostly and decided that it would be better if she sat outside today.

Studying inside would have been a better idea for her, though. In the end, she got nothing done. She kept getting distracted. They were sitting near the soccer field so the sound of whistles blowing kept disrupting her. Slamming her books down, she looked at Ichigo. "There is no way that I am ever going to get any studying done here. I'm gonna go move into the library". Ichigo decided that was probably best and didn't argue with her as she stood to leave. As soon as she turned to leave though, something slammed into her face. Everything went black.

Orihime opened her eyes to find that she was no longer outside. Instead, she was laying in a bed in what she assumed was the infirmary. Her head was killing her. She thought back to why she was here and remembered that she had been hit in the face. That explained the pain in her head. The curtain separating her from the rest of the room was pulled back, revealing an old woman with a surprised look on her face. "I didn't expect you to wake up so soon!", the old woman cried. Examining her, Orihime could see that she wasn't really that old. She had a few white hairs and her face was wrinkled, both most likely results from being anxious over the years. It was then that she noticed the woman's name tag, it read 'Maggie'. What a comforting name, so befitting of this old woman. While Orihime had been lost in thought the nurse carried on, "He'll be so happy to know that you are awake! I'll go get him. First things first though, you should drink something. There's water beside your bed. Be careful when you get up though. Wouldn't want you getting hurt again". With that, the nurse was gone and left Orihime there to ponder what had happened to her.

'I used to be so strong,' she thought, 'I used to be able to heal wounds and protect myself from things worse than this. What in the world happened to me?'. She knew what had happened to her though. She had lost faith in everything. After that day five years ago, she could no longer bear to use the powers that let Ulquiorra die. After a while, she had completely forgotten how to use her powers. Her hair clips now just a cute accessory instead of a weapon. She had no interest in returning to the world of Soul Reapers, her life was in this world and that was good enough for her.

She looked out the window behind her, surprised to see that the sun was starting to set. 'How long was I unconscious?', she wondered. She heard the door open behind her, but didn't bother to turn around and see who it was. She just assumed it was the nurse returning. "She hit her head pretty hard, I am genuinely surprised that she woke up this quickly. She seems alright but I think it would be safer if someone would accompany her home. Since this was your fault, it's only right that you are the one to escort her.", Orihime heard the nurse speaking to someone behind her. She started to turn and froze.

She couldn't believe what she was seeing. Maybe the hit to her head had rattled something loose. That would be the only reasonable conclusion for what she was seeing. She stared at the man. He stared back, with the same emerald eyes that have haunted for five years. She fainted again.


	2. Chapter 2-Blast From The Past

She opened her eyes and saw emerald. He was staring at her and he looked worried. She was hoping that when she opened her eyes again he would prove to be just a hallucination. Apparently that was not the case. Still, she couldn't believe it. "Are you okay?", he asked her. His breath washed across her face and she finally realized he was real. 'No way, no way no way', her thoughts went in circles. She knew this couldn't be possible. He disintegrated right before her own eyes. But looking at him, he seemed so real and so much like her Ulquiorra. Breaking out her trance, she found that he was still trying to speak to her. "I'm okay.", she assured him. She stood, ignoring the hand he held out in assistance. "I'm really sorry about earlier. I kicked the ball too hard and it went wild. I'm really sorry.", he apologized. Though he was apologizing, Orihime got the feeling that he didn't mean it, that he really didn't care if he hit her in the face. He seemed emotionless and stiff.

Though he seemed so much like Ulquiorra, she knew there was no way he could be. There were plenty of people in the world with green eyes. It was very possible that some of them could be emotionless, pale, and statue-like. Ulquiorra was not the only person with those qualities. She concluded that this could in no way be the man she had lost so long ago. Orihime decided to leave it be. She moved to get past him and leave, but he moved with her. "What on Earth do you think you are doing?", she asked him. "I'm supposed to help you get home. The nurse gave me this job and I will finish it.", he stated. Orihime rolled her eyes, but made no attempt to stop him from following her.

They were almost to her apartment. 'Just a little bit longer.', she thought to herself. She couldn't wait to get home and get away from this stranger. His looks were starting to make her feel anxious. Green eyes usually sent her into a panic attack. She didn't want to think about what a Ulquiorra look-alike would do to her if she spent too much time with him. They made their way to the front door of her apartment building. She fully expected him to stop here and let her go on her own. She was clearly capable of moving around on her own and didn't need him to escort her any longer. Apparently, he had other ideas.

He followed her inside, into the elevator, and the whole way to her front door. Only then did he show any signs that he was going to leave. She turned to him and said, "Thank you for bringing me home. I really appreciate it,", she held her hand out, "I'm Orihime by the way. Orihime Inoue". He made no move to shake her hand. He just looked at her and said, "I was just doing my job. Pleasure to meet you, Orihime. My name is Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra Cifer.". Without another word he turned and left her standing there, dumbfounded and very confused.

She stood there for another ten minutes after he left, her mind going in circles but always returning to the same point. 'His name's Ulquiorra.', she kept thinking to herself. She knew the odds of it being a coincidence were pretty low. Finally, she was able to clear her head enough to unlock her door and open it. She felt better once she was inside her apartment. At least nothing had changed here. What was she supposed to be feeling right now? Happy? Sad? For some reason none of those options seemed right. She sat on her bed and tried to sort out her feelings. First and foremost, she was angry. She had suffered for five years thinking that he had died. She dealt with nightmares every night. She even lost her powers. Where had he been this whole time? How did he survive? Most importantly, why did he act like he had never met her before this? It had been five years, but she hadn't changed that much in the looks department. He should've been able to recognize her immediately, especially after everything that happened in their past.

He had been the one assigned to watch her when she was taken to Hueco Mondo. He had seemed cold and uncaring. There more time she spent with him, the more her curiosity grew. She never really understood him. He could have been cruel to her. But, he wasn't. He never seemed like he cared too much. But he did not seem like he held no feelings for her. Over the time she was kept there, they had a special bond. When the time came for Ulquiorra to fight Ichigo, she was certain that he had cared for her. And she knew that she had grown to care for him too. She loved him. There was no way she could deny it, especially after the breakdown she had when she thought he had died. There was too much history between them for him to just pretend that he didn't know her. For some reason though, she didn't feel like he was faking it.

She couldn't stand it anymore. She had to know more about him. Who was he? Why was he pretending that he didn't know her? She had so many questions running through her mind that she could barely focus on anything else. The only way she would be able to find answers would be to talk to him. She decided to find him at school the next day. It would be hard, the campus was large and there were a lot of students. But she would not give up until she found him. She refused to let him get away again. She would find him and get some answers from him. Pleased with her resolve, she settled down and fell asleep.

She woke with a start. Apparently the nightmares weren't going to stop that easily. She doubted that she would ever truly get rid of them. But, today was no day to worry about them. She had a job to do. She got ready and left for school, determined to find out what exactly was going on.

She stepped outside her building and saw Ichigo standing there. He smiled when he saw her, "I've been waiting for you. I'm sorry I couldn't be with you yesterday. I had to go to work, those souls weren't going to reap themselves". He laughed at what he said. Orihime did not find it very funny. His job was important, it wasn't something to be laughed at. She wondered if he had seen the guy who hit her yesterday. Did he notice what he looked like? Did he even remember what Ulquiorra looked like anymore? She doubted it. After that fight, Ichigo wanted nothing but to put it behind him. He thought what he did was right and didn't understand why she was so upset over it. Of course he would question what was going on with her. He didn't know Ulquiorra like she did. He only knew him as an enemy. Nothing more. Orihime couldn't hold a grudge against him since he did what he thought was right. But she could no longer hold onto the love she once had for Ichigo. Now they were just friends and that was perfectly fine with her. But she knew that Ichigo had deeper feelings for her. She had seen how he looked at her now, heard what he says to his friends about her. He had grown to love her over these past years. But it was too late for that. He had yet to act on his feelings and Orihime was not going to tell him that she knew about them. Instead she let their friendship stay the way it is. That seemed to be good enough for now anyway. They walked to the university in silence. Orihime was too focused to make idle chit-chat. As soon as they hit the gates, she said good bye to him and went to find a certain green-eyed boy.


	3. Chapter 3-Questions and Answers

Orihime had figured that finding him would be hard. But she didn't think that it would be _this_ hard. She had searched the soccer field, cafeteria, and other obvious places. But now she had to go to class. As she sat in class, she thought of other places that she could look. She kept coming up blank. She could hear the professor going on about something but she wouldn't bring herself to listen to him. Somewhere in her mind, she knew that this wasn't good for her. This was her hardest class and she should be paying attention or else her grades would suffer. She knew all of that, but she just couldn't stop her mind from wandering to Ulquiorra. She was so going to fail the midterm if she couldn't get her mind on track. There was no stopping it now, though, so she just let her mind go on it's own.

After some time, she heard her professor dismiss the class. Orihime flew out of her seat. She could finally go on with her search. She still had no idea where to look but thought that it didn't matter. She would find him, she knew it. She was so caught up in her thoughts that she didn't realize where she was walking...until she ran straight into somebody's back. Her books fell to the ground and she followed them. She could feel some blood trickling from her nose. 'Shit.', she thought. It was entirely her fault for not paying attention, she just hoped that the person she rain into would understand that it was an accident. She looked up to apologize, but couldn't get any words out.

He stared down at her. She knew she should say something, but she couldn't. He was so beautiful. His black hair was falling to his face and his green eyes stared hard at her. She should probably be intimidated by that stare, but she just found it intriguing. Finally she saw his mouth move, "Why do we keep hitting each other," he said to her, smirking. It was then that he noticed her nosebleed. "You're bleeding. I'll go get you some tissues.", he turned to leave. Orihime grabbed onto his leg, keeping him in place. "I have been looking for you all day. I'll be damned if I let you get away from me now. You wanna go? Take me with you. We have somethings that we need to discuss," she said. He didn't argue. She didn't know whether it was because he felt bad or because he knew there was no way to tell her no. She gathered her stuff and rose, following him down the hallway.

They made a stop at the bathroom so that Orihime could clean up. When she hesitated, he assured her that he would not move from that spot until she came back from the bathroom. She didn't take him for a liar so she went. Looking in the mirror, she sighed at her reflection. She had stopped bleeding already, but the damage was already done. The blood had ran the whole way down her face and was starting to dry. There were even a few drops on her white shirt, but she didn't care about that. She just wanted to clean her face up so she could continue with her interrogation. So she did just that, grabbing a tissue and scrubbing until her face was she was satisfied with her face again, she left the bathroom.

He had kept his promise. He was still in the same exact place that he had been when she left. Her heart settled at the sight of him. Of course she was anxious about leaving him. He had left her all alone before, it was only natural that she would be afraid of it happening again. She was angry with herself. Why should she care if he leaves again? It's not her problem. He could go wherever he wanted, she didn't care. She knew those were all lies though. She didn't want to be abandoned by him again. She wanted answers, closure, and the ability to move on. She was hoping that this conversation would help her get all of these things.

He led her outside, made his way to a tree, and sat down beneath it. She sat down beside him. She was prepared for this. But, sitting there next to him, she lost all of her words. Everything she had prepared went right out of her brain. As she was searching for what she wanted to say, he spoke, "Why were you looking for me?" His words brought her back from her own world."I want answers," was all she said in response. His brow furrowed in confusion, "Answers? I don't know what answers I could have for you. I just met you yesterday. The only thing I know about you is your name. So unless you have forgotten that, then I can't help you." Orihime's mouth dropped, "Just met yesterday? Don't play dumb! How can you just sit there and pretend not to know me? Yesterday was not the first time. I met you five years ago." Her voice was shaking. He was surprised at the anger he was hearing in her words, but he was even more surprised by the hurt he heard behind that anger. He couldn't focus on that though, because what she said intrigued him. Now he wanted answers. "You say that I met you five years ago? That might be true. I have lost all of my memories from that time. I woke up one day four years ago and didn't remember a thing. The hospital I was in told me that I had been in a coma for a year. Apparently my memory loss was a side effect of that."

Orihime was at a loss for words. Amnesia? He expected her to believe that he had amnesia? He was crazy. He enjoyed hurting her, that's why he had stayed away from her for so long. He came back now because he wanted to see her life thrown upside down. She couldn't stop the tears from coming anymore. She stood and looked at him. She threw all of her feelings into her next words, "I'm supposed to believe that you have amnesia and can't remember me? That's awfully convenient. I've been suffering for years, where were you then? Why did you show up now? I lost everything because of you! If you didn't want to see me, you could have just told me so. You don't need to lie about it. Forget it, I don't need you. I never did. I wanted closure and now I have it. Bye." With that she turned and stomped away from him, wiping the tears from her face.


	4. Chapter 4-Memories

He watched her walk away. He felt like he should go after her, but he was frozen in place. He was never good at reading people's feelings. But hers were plain for him to see, she was suffering. He didn't know what happened with them before, he really did have amnesia. But apparently, he had done something to this girl that hurt her immensely. He thought of her, yelling and cursing him, tears running down her face. He couldn't understand why that look made his heart hurt so bad. He stood to go home, not feeling soccer practice. When he got to his feet, he swayed. Grabbing the tree for support, Ulquiorra grit his teeth against the pain in his head. 'What's going on?' he thought. Before he could start to panic, a flashback hit him.

He looked around but didn't recognize where he was or who he was with. Next to him was a man, if you could call him that, that looked strange. His cheekbones stood out from his face and had an orange line above them. The top of his head was bald and looked like it had knuckles sticking out of it. He was wearing a mask that only covered his jaw. The weirdest part of this man, though, was the giant hole in his chest. It wasn't like a hole where you could see his insides. All that showed through it was darkness, like the man himself was hollow. Ulquiorra tried to ask the man what was going on, but his body didn't cooperate. The man started to talk about the reishi density. 'What on earth is resihi?' Ulquiorra thought to himself. But while he was thinking, his body spoke, "Stop complaining. I told you I can manage alone." Ulquiorra was stunned. He had not said that. His body was speaking on it's own. It's like he was trapped in his own mind but unable to do anything. His body continued speaking, addressing the man next to him an Yammy. It appeared that their conversation was over because Yammy was making his way out of the giant crater they were standing in. When Yammy reached the top there was a crowd of people there, but no one seemed to notice him. How they didn't see him was a mystery to Ulquiorra because he was a giant. But Yammy didn't seem surprised, instead he went on about not having spirit energy. Then he attacked the group.

Yammy sucked in a breath and the people around him started to glow blue. Ulquiorra didn't know what he was doing, but he knew that it was harming those people. He expected his body to stop them, instead he just stayed where he was and did nothing. He stood behind Yammy as the people all dropped to the ground. He heard Yammy and himself talking. It was then that he learned that those people were unable to see them. It made sense, if they had been able to see Yammy they would've ran for their lives. Ulquiorra knew that he should feel bad for the people that Yammy had just killed, but he had never really felt emotions. He felt nothing for those people and he accepted that.

Yammy had moved towards a girl who had somehow survived his soul suck attack. He was just about to kill her when a boy with a black and red arm stopped the kick. Ulquiorra was surprised, he had never seen somewhere with an arm like that. Yammy seemed to also be surprised. But Ulquiorra was confused when Yammy said, "Who are you guys?". There was more than one of them? Looking past the boy, he saw her. Ulquiorra had almost lost every semblance of calm by now. Standing right there, right in front of him, was Orihime. She looked younger, but he knew it was her. She hadn't changed that much. The boy was talking to her, telling her to take the girl and get away from there. She did as he asked. Ulquiorra wanted to follow her and ask what was going on. But yet again, his body wouldn't listen to him. Instead, it was telling yammy that the boy was trash. The boy, Orihime called him Chad, tried to fight Yammy, but lost. Orihime watched as Chad was fell to the ground, unconscious. She ran to him, yelling his name. She kept yelling for him while Yammy asked Ulquiorra if the girl was also trash. He said yes. Ulquiorra couldn't believe it, he just called Orihime trash. Yammy moved to attack her, but his attack was stopped.

It looked as though some kind of barrier had been put in front of Orihime. She stood and said something that Ulquiorra could not understand. But then her hair pin had turned into what looked like little birds and started healing Chad's hurt arm. Yammy was surprised, but he wasn't the only one. The Ulquiorra from this time was trying to consider what Orihime's power was. It wasn't healing, but some kind of time reversal power. He was intrigued. Orihime then tried to attack Yammy, but she was unable to do anything against him. Yammy again asked Ulquiorra what they should do, kill her or keep her for Aizen. Who in the world was Aizen? But apparently his body already knew because he told Yammy to erase her. Ulquiorra could not help the spike of fear he felt course through his body. He was afraid for her. Yammy moved to kill her, but was stopped. Someone was standing in front of Orihime. Ulquiorra's eyes wandered over the new player in this memory. He started at the sword that was pointing at Yammy, it was huge. How could anyone lift it? He then went up the arm of the person and saw what they were wearing. It was strange, it looked like something from ancient times. Then he went to the face and was surprised to see that he knew the person. Protecting Orihime was someone he had seen with her yesterday, a man that he knew as Ichigo Kurosaki. As soon as he had recognized the boy, his mind went black.

Once again Ulquiorra was gripping the tree in the courtyard. He was astonished. He had regained some of his memories. But with them he had also gained new questions. In the flashback he had, it had seemed like him and Orihime were enemies. So why did he not get that vibe from her before? She seemed they like were at least friends, and close ones at that. If they had been enemies, why was she so devastated about his loss? He wanted answers more than ever, and he knew exactly where to get them.


	5. Chapter 5-I'll Try

Orihime couldn't believe that jerk. Did he think she was a fool? Why did she even care anyway? She could let go of her old feelings, she knew she could. As she continued to run away, she couldn't stop the tears flowing down her face. How could it still hurt this much? She had already been broken once, there shouldn't be anything left to break right? She probably should have stayed to talk to him. She might have been able to work it out. But she knew that would have hurt even worse, so instead she ran away. She was still running when she smacked face first into someone's chest. They both fell on the ground, Orihime on top of her victim. She was getting tired of running into people. That's how she got into this whole mess today. She opened her eyes a little bit and saw that she was on top of Ichigo.

"Ow, Orihime. You're small but running into you feels like I just got hit by a truck," he then saw her tears, "Aw man, what's wrong? I didn't think the fall hurt that bad. I'm sorry. I should've been paying attention." Orihime couldn't tell him he was wrong. She just kept crying. Her heart was breaking all over again and she couldn't even tell her best friend what was wrong. So for now she just took comfort in his arms. She knew it was wrong, it would give him false hope, but she felt so helpless. She needed Ichigo. So when he tried to pull away from her, she held on tighter and pulled him back to her.

It was surprising. Ichigo was sure that Orihime didn't love him. As far as he was concerned, she didn't like him in that way anymore. But here she was, crying and holding onto him. He felt his hopes rise a little bit. Maybe she did care for him, maybe they did have a chance. She was squeezing him tight now and he wrapped his arms around her, pulling her further into his chest. He felt her tears soak through his shirt and wondered what could make her cry so hard. It had been a while since he saw Orihime cry, at least four years. But now she was sobbing like she would never stop.

They sat there like that for a while, neither of them speaking. Ichigo didn't ask her anymore question and Orihime was thankful for that. What would she have told him anyway? He didn't even know about Ulquiorra. He had know idea what she had been going through for the past few years. So how was she supposed to explain it now? That she got Ulquiorra back just to lose him again? Ichigo would think she was crazy. He would also be hurt because she cried so hard over another guy. She decided to keep it to herself. It was over now anyway. Ulquiorra wouldn't be a problem for her ever again. Her sobs slowed and eventually. She pulled back from his chest and looked at Ichigo. His blonde hair shined in the streetlights. Why couldn't she just love him? It would have been so much easier if she just loved Ichigo. He knew her, really truly knew her. They would have made a great couple, but fate was cruel.

Ichigo watched as Orihime looked at him. He knew that look on her face meant that she was thinking hard about something. He didn't want to interrupt in case she was thinking about their future as a couple. He knew it was a long shot, but he couldn't stop the little sprouts of hope that were popping up in his brain. How often had he wished that Orihime would come to him like this? He felt bad that she was so distraught but maybe now she would see that they were a good match and that it would be better for them to be together. She used to want the same thing as him. She was the first one to want them to be a couple, but he was stupid. He had ignored any sign of affection that she showed him. He was suffering the consequences now. She didn't want him anymore. Or at least he thought she didn't, maybe she was finally coming back to him. When Orihime started to pull away, Ichigo pulled her right back to him. It was time to do this. Time to start their life together.

"Ichigo, what are you doing?" She asked. She didn't understand his actions. She was fine now and it was getting late, she needed to go home. "I can't do this anymore Orihime!" he said, his voice raising. He pulled back to look at her. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were red from crying, and she looked so beautiful. "I love you. I love you so much it hurts. I know you used to feel the same way. It was my fault that you lost sight of those feelings. I want to help you find them again. I know you don't love me now, but you will eventually. Please, Orihime. Try to love me. Be mine." His eyes begged her to accept him, but she was lost for words. She knew that she would probably never love him, but she desperately wished that what he said was true. She wanted him to be able to erase Ulquiorra from her heart. While she was thinking of a response, Ichigo pulled her to him. She was surprised when their lips met. This is not how she saw this going, she should have denied him right off the bat. But he took her hesitation as acceptance and deepened the kiss. She felt his tongue glide against her bottom lip and gasped. Ichigo took advantage of the opening and tangled their tongues together. It was too much, Orihime had to stop this. She pulled back from him.

He tried to pull her back, she put a hand on his chest, stopping him. Looking at him, she instantly felt bad for what she was going to say. His eyes were glowing like she had never seen before. His cheeks were flushed from the kiss. He looked so happy, she didn't want to ruin it. Maybe they could try to be a couple. As long as he didn't kiss her again, she could at least pretend to be happy. If she couldn't be happy, then at least she could help Ichigo be happy. Coming to a decision, she looked at him and said, "We can try. I can't promise you anything. But, I have a few conditions,' he nodded, willing to agree to anything, "We go slow. I don't think I'm ready for another kiss like that." Ichigo was disappointed that she didn't want to just jump into it with him, but at least she said yes. He smiled at her, accepting her terms.

It was dark and Orihime needed to get home. As her newly designated boyfriend, Ichigo offered to take her. As they walked down the street together, he grabbed her hand. She felt horrible. It was hard to pretend she wanted this when Ichigo kept insisting on touching her. She knew that it was her own fault, she had told him no kissing. Hand-holding was not the same thing and she had never said he couldn't do it. She tried to put her mind elsewhere. It was surprisingly easy as Ichigo talked nonstop. Their conversation was completely one-sided and Ichigo didn't seem to mind, or didn't notice, her lack of interest.

They made their way to Orihime's apartment. She said good night and he seemed reluctant to leave. She was afraid that he would try to kiss her again, there was no way she could take that right now. He was thinking about it though. He thought that maybe if he kissed her again she would be more willing to open up to their relationship. But he looked at her and realized that she was probably exhausted. He decided to adhere to her wishes, at least for now. So he said goodnight and walked away from her.

Orihime was thankful that Ichigo didn't look back as he walked away. If he had, he would have seen nothing but sadness on her face. She didn't want him to see that, she wanted him to believe that she at least wanted this a little bit. If he believed that, then maybe eventually she could believe it as well. She went into her apartment and went straight to the shower. She turned the water up a shot as it could go. Why did she feel so cold? She just got into a relationship, shouldn't she be happy and warm? She kept asking these questions but she knew the answer. She felt hollow because she had left her heart back at that tree with Ulquiorra. She had left it with someone that didn't want it. Closing her eyes, she could see him. He looked different than he had back then. The white clothes he used to wear would blend in with his pale skin and make the green stripes on his face stand out. Now he wore regular clothes that contrasted with his skin and his stripes were barely visible. She wondered if there was still a hole in his chest, she was almost certain that there had to be. He obviously didn't have a heart. She thought about their conversation today. She wondered what he was doing and decided that she shouldn't care. Thinking about him made the pain in her chest stand out even more. She moved so the water hit her face, letting it minge with her tears as she cried for her lost love.


	6. Chapter 6-History

That night was terrible. She had her normal nightmare, but there were new things added to it. Instead of the dream ending after Ulquiorra disintegrates, it now continues on to show him coming back, them becoming a couple, and her losing him all over again. It wasn't fair. She was trying to let him go, but he just kept coming back. This new nightmare left her feeling even worse than the old one did. The dream showed her that they could be happy that that was the hardest thing to forget. She knew they could be happy but would never get the chance to experience it herself. That knowledge hurt more than when she thought she had lost him forever. She tried to push it away. She needed to get ready for class and couldn't do it filled with grief.

Later, she heard her doorbell ring. She looked out and saw Ichigo. Memories of last night immediately filled her mind. Guilt crushed her. She shouldn't be doing this to him. She just wanted him to be happy and seeing how he looked right now showed that it was working. But would it just hurt him in the end? Orihime had no idea, but she hoped that it wouldn't end that way. She opened her door and Ichigo smiled at her. They left for school, Ichigo keeping his arm around her shoulder the whole way. Orihime planned to get as far away as possible one they hit the school gates. But that didn't happen. When they got there she tried to move away and Ichigo just moved with her. He had decided to walk her to class, so getting away was impossible at this point.

When she got to class, her best friend, Tatsuki, assaulted her with questions about her and Ichigo. She had all the normal questions, when, where, and how were her main focus. But she wanted to know why they had taken so long to get together. They were an obvious couple from the beginning. Orihime answered almost robotically and soon Tatsuki was suspicious. "Do you even really want to be in this relationship? A while ago you told me that you had completely gotten over Ichigo and now you're dating? This doesn't make sense. You don't seem happy at all. What's going on?" Orihime opened her mouth to answer when the door slammed open. She turned to see what had happened and saw Ulquiorra moving towards her.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him. What the hell was he doing here? Orihime was upset at herself for being happy to see him. She was supposed to be done with this. When they got outside, she ripped her wrist out of his grasp. She glared at him, "What in the hell was that, Ulquiorra? I was in the middle of a conversation! You can't just steal me whenever you want." The ice in her voice hurt Ulquiorra. Why was she the only that could make him feel these things? After that initial flashback, he had been getting even more of his memories back. Mos of it were little flashes, so he didn't fully understand them. He had the strangest feeling that she could help him. He turned toward her, ready to get this started.

She had been so angry that she hadn't really looked at him. He looked exhausted and confused. This obviously wasn't a friendly chat, he was here for a reason. He started in on his interrogation, "What are we? And don't try to say that you don't know what I'm talking about. I started getting my memories back yesterday. Mostly bits and pieces though. I know all about your little power," he reached out and tapped her hair piece, "I know you have, or had, a friend named Chad who's arm is freaky. I also know that Ichigo Kurosaki is some kind of sword wielding prince or something like that. I met you five years ago in a park…. I called you trash… We obviously weren't friends. Why do I feel like we weren't enemies? I got more flashes of you in a room, trapped. I kept visiting you. I actually care what you feel, why is that? I don't care about people! Why do I care about you? What am I to you? What are you to me? I need these answers, girl. Or I will never be able to get on with my life." He looked at her, waiting for her answers.

Orihime felt her jaw drop open. She didn't initially believe the amnesia thing, but she had thought about it last night and realized that Ulquiorra wouldn't go to the trouble of making up lies. But now he was saying that he knew her. He remembered her! She couldn't help the smile that spread across her face. He needed answers from her and she would give them to him. "We might need to find a place to sit down. This is going to take a while. Our story is very complicated." They moved to a nearby bench and Orihime started at the beginning.

While she told their story, Ulquiorra kept seeing bits and pieces of the past. He saw her in the passage that he abducted her from. He saw her in the Espada uniform, she looked so beautiful in it. When she reached the end, he was flung into another flashback.

He opened his eyes in a dark gray place. He didn't panic this time. He knew what was going on. He had to let the past run its course. Then he could see what happened between him and Orihime. He was surprised when he felt his body, it was dying. He wouldn't be able to hold on much longer. He focused on what he was doing, and found that his past self was looking at Orihime. When he looked at her, he felt an emotion that he didn't understand. He knew it wasn't him feeling it, but his past self. He was astonished. His past self had loved her. He had loved Orihime! He couldn't believe it. They had been enemies, pulled apart by fate. He had even kidnapped her. But as he looked at her, he could see in her eyes that the feeling was mutual. She didn't want him to die. Ichigo had fought with him, but that was not what she wanted. She saw what damage he had taken, and wanted to heal him. But she couldn't. Her powers were failing her at that moment and it was killing her.

He felt his body move, reaching his arm toward her. "Are you scared of me, girl?" he asked her. He already knew that she wasn't but wanted to hear it. She looked so sad, it pained him to see it. She looked at his outstretched hand, then back at him, "No." she said. She reached for him, hoping that maybe this wasn't the end. She didn't want this. Why did they have to be enemies? They could have been so much more. She continued to reach for him but, just shy of touching him, he started to disintegrate. "I was just starting to be interested with your kind," he said. He watched her face change as his body slowly disintegrated. It started with his arm and then moved to the rest of him. With every part of him that disappeared, her tears started to come faster. Even after his physical body had disappeared, his mind was able to stay there. It was like they wanted him to know what she went through after he was gone.

He watched Orihime sink to the ground. He ached to touch her, comfort her in some way. But he couldn't. Only his mind was there now, he could only watch her suffer. She kept crying his name, her tears mingling with the ash that the wind hadn't swept away. Ichigo tried to comfort her, but he didn't know what was wrong. He tried desperately to make her feel better. It seemed that Orihime had had enough of it. She turned towards Ichigo and screamed at him, "This is all your fault! He didn't have to die, Ichigo! He wasn't even bad, just misguided. He could've left Aizen's side!" Ichigo looked confused, he didn't know where this anger had come from. "Why do you even care, Orihime? The guy kidnapped you! I just saved your ass and you're yelling at me?" Ichigo tried to keep the anger out of his voice but failed. "I loved him, you idiot!" Orihime admitted. Ulquiorra felt his heart pulse at hearing her confession, but the happiness was short lived. Orihime was not done yet. She was still sobbing and Ichigo had no way to stop it. So he just took her home.

The rest was like watching a movie on fast-forward. He saw Orihime suffer her nightmares every night. He saw her push Ichigo farther and farther away. He watched helplessly as she cursed the power that didn't help her save him. She refused to use it ever again. Now she didn't know how to use it. She slowly grew away from all of her friends, none of them understanding her pain. Ichigo was the only one that knew what happened and still stood by her. Ulquiorra saw the Ichigo had grown to love her. He felt his jealousy but then felt bad for Ichigo because it was obvious that Orihime did not love him. She loved Ulquiorra and even after his death, or what she thought was his death, that did not change. He refocused on the memories flying past him, and saw Orihime studying on the bleachers. He knew this moment and could feel the memories coming to an end. The soccer ball hit her in the face and he was pushed out of the memories.

When he opened his eyes, Orihime was watching him. She looked worried. He reached his hand to touch her face, "I'm okay, girl. I was just watching our history." Orihime's eyes filled with tears. He remembered! He remembered everything! She was so relieved that she didn't take in her surroundings carefully. If she had been paying attention, she would have seen a certain blonde Soul Reaper watching her and Ulquiorra.


	7. Chapter 7-Fake It

Ichigo didn't know what he was seeing. Orihime was sitting next to some guy, crying and smiling! He looked at the guy and was startled at his looks. 'He...He looks so much like Ulquiorra," he thought. Is he the reason that Orihime was crying so much last night? Ichigo decided that he needed to make his presence, and territory, known. He stomped towards the two of them

Orihime heard footsteps coming towards them but didn't think anything of it at first. Then she saw Ichigo stand in front of them. She looked at his face and saw the anger there. Shit. She was in some serious trouble. Ichigo grabbed her wrist and pulled her to her feet and away from Ulquiorra. She tried to move away from Ichigo, causing him to squeeze her wrist harder. She looked at Ulquiorra and saw that he was angry with how Ichigo was treating her. She was about to assure him that she was okay when Ichigo spoke. "I don't know who you are, but you stay away from my girlfriend. She doesn't need you. She has me already." Ulquiorra looked surprised at his declaration. "Girlfriend? That's preposterous. She doesn't even like it when you touch her. Look at her Kurosaki, you can obviously see that she's uncomfortable. And you are hurting her. I recommend that you remove that hand before I remove it for you." Ulquiorra was absolutely furious. And Orihime thought that he never looked hotter. But she didn't have time for that. Apparently Ichigo didn't like being told what to do because he looked even angrier. "If you think she actually likes you, you're crazy. It's only your looks that she's drawn to. Whether you believe it or not, she is my girlfriend. She agreed last night. Maybe if you hadn't hurt her so bad yesterday she wouldn't have come running to me." Ichigo said, smirking.

Ulquiorra looked to her, shocked. She had went to Ichigo yesterday, but she didn't want this to happen. She had also thought that Ulquiorra was a liar and just wanted to play with her feelings. But now she knew the truth and she regretted what happened between her and Ichigo. Ulquiorra saw in her face that she didn't want to be with Ichigo. He was upset that this happened, but he would not lose to Ichigo again. Especially not when he knew how the first one hurt Orihime so much. He looked at chigo, smiled, and said, "It seems that you have a foggy memory, Kurosaki. If she is attracted to my looks then it is for a good reason. She loved me once, five years ago. She still loves me. And I love her. Now stop trying to play the hero and just let her go. Don't force her into something she doesn't want." Orihime felt the tears stream down her face. She was shocked, he had never admitted that he loved her before. She needed to make sure she heard him right. She was trying to move towards, but Ichigo had a hold of her wrist. She looked at Ulquiorra, "You love me?" she asked. He nodded. "Ulquiorra…" she muttered, looking for some way to convey her happiness.

Ichigo's eyes widened. He looked at Ulquiorra again, seeing him for who he actually was. "You can't be. You died a long time ago. You think you can just come back here and have a claim on my girlfriend? Get in line, man! I waited years for this to happen and you will not take it from me! Orihime agreed to go out with me, not you. I don't care if you love her. I love her more than anyone else. You have no claim to her heart. She loved me first, before you ever showed up, and she will love me last. We're leaving." Ichigo turned away from Ulquiorra and started to walk away. In the end, he had to drag Orihime away from Ulquiorra.

She had to get back to him. She kept trying to get away from Ichigo, crying and kicking the whole way back to her apartment. He took her keys from her and opened the door. He threw her inside. She tried to get past him, but he easily held her back. After three more unsuccessful tries, Ichigo had had enough. "Why Orihime? Even if he is who he says he is, he left you! He abandoned you five years ago! Why in the hell would you want to go back to a guy like that?" he screamed at her. She turned towards him and said, "I love him. You don't know the circumstances, Ichigo. I'm sorry, I should never have agreed to try this relationship with you. I should have just said no. I'm ending this now. I won't be able to love you, Ichigo. Not when I love him." She turned to walk away from him. But he pulled her back around to face him.

Once she was turned around, she felt a sting on her face. She raised her hand to her cheek and realized what had happened, Ichigo had hit her. She looked at him and was frozen with terror. He looked so angry. She needed to get away from him. She tried to pull away, but he held on tighter. She cried out. This wasn't the Ichigo she knew. Ichigo wouldn't do this to her. He got into her face and screamed, "This isn't over, Orihime. I've been here for five years, waiting for you. Now you tell me that you don't love me? He left you! I was here this whole time, picking up the pieces. You can't just leave me after all I've done to you. You are not allowed to leave me!" Then, he kissed her. His tongue tried to enter her mouth. When she denied him entrance, he pulled on her hair. Her mouth opened as she cried out, and he forced his tongue past her teeth. Orihime was afraid.

She couldn't fight him, he was stronger than her. She needed to find another way to get out of this. She bit down, crushing his tongue between her teeth. He backed away from her. She took that chance to run. She ran into the bathroom, closing and locking the door behind her. She needed to call for help. She looked for her cell-phone, but realized she dropped it during the struggle. Ichigo was outside the door, screaming at her to open up. She sat in the corner and cried.

She was so scared. Ichigo was trying to break down the door and she knew it was a matter of time until he got in here. There was no where left for her to go. Her bathroom had no windows. Ichigo was blocking the only door. She was trapped in here. She could see that the door was starting to give way. She needed to get Ichigo to calm down. There was no easy way to do that, but she finally thought of a plan that she thought might actually work. She stood and went to the door. Speaking through it she said, "Ichigo, I'm going to unlock the door." She turned the lock and backed away. Ichigo threw the door open and stomped towards her. He raised his hand to strike her, but before he could bring it down he stopped.

Orihime was kissing him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him into the kiss. Ichigo wrapped his arms around her. He lifted her and set her on the sink. She opened her mouth, letting him in. She ran her fingers through his hair, he moaned into her mouth. He moved his mouth to her neck, kissing her. Now that her mouth was free, she had to tell him something to get him to leave before this went too far. "Ichigo, I want to be with you. Forget Ulquiorra. You were right, he abandoned me. You have always been there for me. I won't leave you, but I'm also not ready to go any further than this, okay?" Ichigo froze at her words. He moved to look into her eyes, and spoke. "You really want to be with me," he asked. She nodded and he smiled. He reached out to touch her face and she worked hard to not flinch. He touched her cheek and said, "Sorry about your face, love. But really, you shouldn't do that to me. I was afraid you were going to leave me. You should of said different in the first place. As long as you listen, I won't do it again." He smiled at her. He gave a quick peck on the cheek, then turned and left. When she heard the front door close, she sank to the ground. There was no way to stop the tears that were coming. She stayed there, crying, until she fell asleep.

 **I apologize to all the Ichigo fans! He wasn't originally supposed to be a bad guy, he just turned out that way. I also love Ichigo, but she can't be with him. At least not in this story ;)**


	8. Chapter 8-Absence

Orihime woke disoriented and confused. Why was she in the bathroom? Why did her face hurt so bad? She stood, her body groaning in protest of the movements. Her eyes landed on her reflection in the mirror. As she touched her bruised cheek, everything that happened last night came crashing back to her. She had deceived Ichigo in order to keep herself safe. Thinking of the kiss she gave him made her feel sick. She ran to the toilet, but nothing came up. She hadn't eaten for a while. She went to make food, intentionally not looking at the mirror on her way past it. She looked at the clock and saw that she had woken up hours before she was supposed to. The bathroom had no windows so she wasn't able to see before that the sun hadn't even risen yet. She went to the kitchen, but decided that she didn't have the energy to actually cook anything for breakfast. Cereal was the quickest thing to prepare, so she chose to eat that. Opening her mouth hurt, she guessed it was from the blow to her cheek last night. After she had finished her cereal, she decided it was time to inspect what she looked like.

She went back into the bathroom and stood in front of the mirror. She looked at her bruised cheek. Ichigo had hit her harder than she thought. The bruise was a dark purple, the color an eerie contrast to her pale skin. Ichigo's hand was outlined on the left side of her face, from her eyebrow to her jaw. The blow had broken a few blood vessels in her eye. Half of her eye was red and it was clear that it had been swollen. She looked away from it to stop the tears from coming. As her eyes roamed the rest of her face, she saw that there were trickles of blood on her forehead. She thought back to Ichigo pulling her, he must have caused her scalp to bleed. The sight of her face, bloodied and bruised, made Orihime cringe. She knew there was no way that she could cover this up. She'd have to skip school today or everyone would see it. People would ask questions, she needed to avoid that. Thinking of the people who would see the mark, Orihime's thoughts moved to Ulquiorra.

There was no way that they could be together now. She had to make sure that Ichigo believed her about wanting to be with him, or last night would happen all over again. Then there would be no way out. He wouldn't fall for the same trick twice. She had to steel her heart. Caring for Ulquiorra was something that she couldn't that she couldn't stop, it was natural for her now, but she needed to hide it from the rest of the world. She couldn't make a single person question her love for Ichigo. Having made her decision, she walked to her bed. Laying down, she locked her feelings for Ulquiorra away in her heart. She closed her eyes and fell asleep.

She was woken up by the sound of her phone ringing. Groaning, she reached for it, but only found air. She hadn't picked up her phone since the fight last night, she would have to go find it. She searched her apartment, her phone ringing the whole time. She finally found the phone under the couch. Looking at the caller I.D. she saw that it was Ichigo, no wonder the phone wouldn't stop ringing. She clicked the phone to answer and greeted him. She could hear him sigh through the phone, "Orihime, where are you? I've been waiting down here for 10 minutes. Come on, we're gonna be late for class." He was acting completely normal, but Orihime wasn't surprised. Ichigo wasn't a super angry person, but he never felt any remorse when he did something wrong. She hoped he would understand why she couldn't go today. She put the phone closer to her ear, "I can't go today, Ichigo. I'm sorry that you were waiting for me, but you can go ahead." She heard his voice through the phone, "Oh, are you sick? I understand. I wish you would've told me sooner though. Oh well, I'll call you later to see how you're feeling, okay? Get some rest. Buh-bye." She apologized again and hung up. She was glad he didn't get angry. She climbed back into her bed, and fell asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

Walking to class, Ulquiorra's thoughts kept drifting to Orihime. He wanted to see her. He was surprised when he found out that Orihime had accepted Ichigo's invitation to start dating. She must have done it out of kindness, she really was soft hearted. Ulquiorra knew that that softness would probably hurt her some day, but that was one of the many things that he liked about her. He hoped that she had ended things with Ichigo after their conversation last night. She had accepted the invitation when she thought that there was no hope for him and her to be together. Now that there was a way for them to be together, she had no reason to stay with Ichigo. The idea that they could be together soon made him walk faster. He couldn't wait to get to school.

He couldn't find Orihime. He had gone to her classes, the library, and any other places that she had ever visited. She was nowhere to be found. Just as he started to panic, he saw the girl that Orihime was talking to yesterday. If he recalled correctly, her name was Tatsuki. If anyone knew where Orihime was, it would be up to her, he asked , "Tatsuki, right? Do you know where I could find Orihime? I've looked for her all day, but can't seem to find her anywhere." Tatsuki looked at him, not recognizing him. They had only met once after all. After she decided that he wasn't a threat to Orihime she said, "Orihime didn't come to class today. I don't know why, but she stayed home. She'll probably be back tomorrow. I'll let her know that you were asking after her, okay? What was your name, again?" Ulquiorra was starting to worry. Why would she stay home, especially after last night. It made no sense. Orihime would have wanted to see him and talk it out. Maybe she just got sick. He decided to let it go. He could see her tomorrow. He decided to take Tatsuki up on her offer and told her his name. Realizing that their conversation was over, Ulquiorra walked away.

He kept getting a feeling that something was wrong. He kept trying to reassure himself that Orihime was fine, but the feeling wouldn't go away. That was when he saw Ichigo. Why did he look so happy? He should be devastated that Orihime left him. Maybe he had realized that this was for the best and the loss didn't hurt him that much. Ichigo was a nice guy, so that was probably what had happened. The moment that Ichigo saw Ulquiorra, his faced changed. The first thing he saw was anger. Calling it anger was an understatement though, it was more like rage. The look made Ulquiorra stop in his tracks. Why was Ichigo so angry? Ulquiorra started to fear for Orihime's safety. Ichigo's face changed again, this time all Ulquiorra saw was pure arrogance. Ulquiorra thought the look was silly. What would Ichigo have to be arrogant about? He had lost the girl, this was no time to be feeling full of himself.

Ichigo approached him, every step conveying the arrogance that he was feeling. Stepping up to Ulquiorra, he said, "You've lost, Ulquiorra. She told me last night that she didn't care about you. She finally realized that you abandoned her! She has no reason to return to someone that has already left her. Instead, she chose to stay with me. She wants to be with me!" With every word, the smile on Ichigo's face grew wider. Ulquiorra couldn't wrap his mind around what Ichigo was saying. Orihime didn't want to be with him? She wanted Ichigo? No way. She would never do that. He needed to see her, talk to her, get her to tell him what was going on. After Ichigo had walked away, he made his way to Orihime's apartment.

Orihime had woken up in the evening, sore and even more tired than when she went to sleep. Once again she looked at her reflection, flinching when she saw that the bruise had not gotten any better. If anything it had gotten worse. She started to make her way to the kitchen to make dinner, her stomach growling. She hadn't eaten all day and was starting to feel the effects of it. She made spaghetti, and ate two plates of it. She was just finishing up the dishes when she heard a knock on the door. She wasn't expecting visitors. Ichigo had said he would call but maybe he had decided to just come and see her instead. If it was just Ichigo, there was no need to try and hide the bruise. She opened the door, fully expecting to see Ichigo there. Who she saw wasn't Ichigo though, it was Ulquiorra.


	9. Chapter 9-Goodbye

Orihime shut the door in Ulquiorra's face. She didn't want to see him, not to mention she couldn't let him see her face. There was no way that she could explain away the giant bruise covering her face. She hoped that he would just take the hint and walk away. Sadly, that was not going to happen. After a few minutes, he knocked again. She ignored him, but he didn't make any moves to leave. She heard his voice through the door, "Orihime, I know that you are in there. You already opened the door, it's pointless to try and act like you're not there. I am not leaving until you open this door. I will sleep out here if that is what it takes. I'll just talk to you when you go to class." She knew that he meant what he said. He would definitely stay there all night. She shouldn't have opened the door, this was all her own fault .But she would not open the door. She couldn't let him see her face. Turning away from the door, and Ulquiorra, she went back into the kitchen.

Ulquiorra didn't understand why she was being so stubborn. She just needed to open the door, why wouldn't she do it? He'd been standing here for almost an hour now and she still didn't seem like she was going to open the door. He wasn't going to leave though. If he couldn't see her tonight, he would just wait until the morning. If she was too sick to go to class again, he would still sit out here and wait. She would come out eventually and he would wait here until she did. He needed to talk to her. If she was choosing Ichigo over him, then she should be the one to tell him. Until she did so, he was not going to believe a single word of what Ichigo said. Maybe he was being silly. They hadn't seen each other in five years. He had no claim on her anymore. He didn't even deserve her. She was the best person he had ever met and he was horrible. He had been an evil person, done terrible things. Orihime could see that though, could see the good in him. She was the only person that made him feel anything except empty. He needed her, but that was not true for her. She didn't need him, maybe she didn't even love him anymore. Ulquiorra knew that she had a good reason to hate him, but he was hoping that she still loved him. It was that hope that kept him standing outside her door.

It had been three hours, he was still out there. Why wouldn't he just leave? She didn't want to see him, she was afraid to see him. Pretending to love Ichigo was a lot easier when the person she really loved wasn't right in front of her. If she opened that door, would she be strong enough to shove him away? Could she tell him that she didn't love him anymore? She was terrified that when she opened that door, her resolve would crumble. She wanted to see him, but if she did it would ruin everything. Him being here was a problem as well. If Ichigo heard that he came to see her, he would be furious. She needed to get him to leave. As she was pondering ways to get rid of him, her phone rang. She knew it was Ichigo, he had promised to call. She just hoped that Ulquiorra kept quiet while she was on the phone. Accepting the call, she heard his voice on the other end, "Oh, you picked up. I wasn't sure whether you would be sleeping. I'm glad you're awake. I got you something. It's supposed to make colds go away. I have to do homework first, but I'll bring over afterwards. So in about two hours most likely. I gotta go. I'll see you later." She heard him hang up, panic setting in. Ichigo was coming here and Ulquiorra was right outside. She definitely needed to get him to leave. She had no choice, she had to talk to him.

She walked up to the door. She could see his shadow underneath the door. He hadn't moved this entire time. She felt bad, it must've been uncomfortable to stand for that long. This was no time to be sympathetic though, she needed to get him to leave. She stepped up to the door, took a deep breath, and said, "Go away, Ulquiorra." He was surprised to hear her voice. She had left him alone for this long, he just assumed that she was going to ignore him all night. "We need to talk, Orihime. I need the door and we can talk face to face." She should've known that he wouldn't give up that easily. He was one of the most stubborn people she had ever met. She had no choice, he wouldn't leave until he got what he wanted. But he also wouldn't talk through the door, she had to open it. Preparing herself, she opened the door.

Ulquiorra was relieved that she opened the door, but it was short lived. Any sort of relief he had felt went right out the door when he looked at her face. Looking at the bruise covering half of her face, he felt nothing but anger. He had come here for answers about her and Ichigo, but he now only had more questions. But she didn't give him the chance to ask her any of them before she said, "I don't know what you want from me, Ulquiorra. I'm guessing you saw Ichigo today and he told you we were together. You probably thought he was lying, but he wasn't. Everything he said was true. Yesterday, I realized something. You abandoned me. You came back, but it's too late," she watched as his face changed to a look of pure pain, but she continued, "I don't love you anymore. Ichigo has been there for me this whole time. Why would I ever choose you over him? Did you honestly think that everything could just go back to how it was five years ago? It can never be like that again. Now you need to leave. I don't want to see you anymore." She turned around and shut the door in his face again.

Ulquiorra was still frozen in front of her door. He couldn't bring himself to move. He had never been someone that cared about others, he had never really felt anything before Orihime came into his life. He didn't know that pain like this existed. It kept him rooted to the floor, staring at her door. He kept hoping that she would come back, but it soon became apparent that she was going to. He always knew that it would end like this. She had finally realized how mismatched they truly were. Her feelings for him were probably a fluke anyway. She probably had Stockholm Syndrome or something. He knew that it was impossible for her to care about him. Even if he knew all that, her words hurt. Ichigo was a better match for her. Good people were meant to be with other good people, not evil. He knew that it was better to let her go, but he couldn't get the nagging feeling that something was wrong out of his mind. It would probably be smarter to ignore it. He didn't need them to be together, he just needed her to be happy. If he got even the smallest hint that she wasn't happy, he would go for it. More determined than ever, he turned to leave. He was so focused on himself, he didn't even hear the sobs coming from the other side of the door.

She had tried to hold it together, but it was impossible. As soon as she had closed the door, she had fallen to the floor sobbing. She knew that she had to say what she did, but it just hurt so much. She had lied right to his face and watched as she broke his heart. He probably didn't even understand what was going on. He never had been the best at feeling anything. Would he even understand why he was in pain? She hoped that he would give up on her now. She couldn't give him what he wanted. She couldn't see any way out of her situation with Ichigo. She had to get Ulquiorra out of the picture for both of their sakes. It hurt, but it was necessary. She heard his footsteps move away from her. She knew that she needed to get up, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. She stayed there, on the floor, until Ichigo came. Their conversation wasn't much. It was late and he wanted to get home. He gave her what he got her and left. Orihime was glad that he didn't try to hang around. She didn't know if she had the energy to play pretend with him right now. Drained from all the crying she had done, she climbed into bed and fell right asleep.


	10. Chapter 10-Just A Shell

Orihime woke the next morning and immediately went to see how her face was doing. Looking in the mirror, she was relieved that the bruise had lightened considerably. She could cover it up with make-up and no one would even notice. She could finally go back to school. Her mood was brought down when she realized what going to school actually meant. If she went to school, she would have to play the part of Ichigo's girlfriend. It was much easier when they were apart, but out in public she would have to work twice as hard to make it believable. She had to make it believable for other people. She had already made her choice, now was not the time to be feeling bad for herself. Confident that she would play her role well, she got ready for school.

When she left her apartment, Ichigo was waiting for her. He was happy to see her, and to see that she had been able to cover up the bruise. Her face was so pretty, it would have been a shame to have it marred for any longer. Now she was as pretty as ever. Smiling at her, he said, "Are you feeling better today?" Checking her temperature, he touched their foreheads together. Orihime had the instinct to flinch, but held it back. Couples did this sort of thing, she couldn't seem like it made her uncomfortable. She must have achieved her goal because Ichigo didn't say anything about it. He felt bad about the other night, but almost wished he had done it sooner. Orihime must've thought he was a pushover and that was why she never went out with him. He had finally showed her his dominant side and she had agreed to be with him. In his mind, it was a good thing. He didn't even consider the idea that Orihime was faking it, which means she was succeeding.

They had walked to the school hand in hand, talking energetically. Ichigo was telling her about hunting down a tricky hollow and Orihime played along with the story, acting impressed that he had managed to track down the pesky thing. People watched them with envious eyes. They looked so happy, lost in their own world. But Orihime was wary of their stares. If they looked closely, would they see the anxiety she felt at being so close to Ichigo? Would they be able to tell that she didn't mean any of the sweet things she was saying to him? She only hoped that everyone would believe that they were happy together. If they had no reason to doubt it, then Ichigo wouldn't either. Once they reached Orihime's class, they had to part ways. Ichigo kissed her cheek and said goodbye. Taking a deep breath to calm herself, she walked into her class.

Tatsuki immediately started interrogating Orihime about her relationship. Orihime had prepared for this. She had to make Tatsuki really believe that she loved Ichigo. Tatsuki was her best friend, so she had to be extra convincing or Tatsuki would never believe it. Plastering a smile onto her face, she started to tell Tatsuki the story of how they got together, "You should have seen it, Tatsuki. I had been crying, I don't even remember why now," Orihime lied, but continued on anyway, "I was running and ran into him. We both fell to the ground and he comforted me while I cried into his shoulder. Then he told me that he loved me. I should've known that he did, but I had been so focused on myself that I didn't see his feelings. But you know I've always loved him, right? I was so in shock that he asked me that I wasn't able to answer. Then he kissed me and I knew that it was for real. So of course I agreed and now here we are." Orihime finished her story and looked at her best friend. From the look on her face she could tell that Tatsuki had bought every word of it. "I'm so happy for you, Orihime! I've watched you fawn over that boy for years, now your hard work has finally payed off. If he ever hurts you though, I'll have to kill him." Laughing, Tatsuki embraced Orihime. Orihime almost laughed at the irony. 'Oh, Tatsuki. If you only knew…"

Her classes were as hard as ever. She was really behind after missing yesterday and had to get the notes from Tatsuki. Luckily, she easily understood what she had missed so doing the work was going to be easier than she thought. It would still take a while, but at least she wouldn't struggle. When her class was over, Orihime went to the library to finish her work. After a while, her stomach growled. She always got too involved in her studies, so forgetting meals was nothing new for her. Standing, she closed her books and went to the cafeteria. Thankfully this place was open as long as the campus was. Eager to get back to her work, Orihime basically inhaled her food. She was determined to finish all of this in one night. Any longer and she would risk falling even farther behind and that was something that she didn't want. On her way back to the library, she heard someone calling out to her. When she turned she saw that Uryu.

It had been a while since they saw each other. Their classes were on opposite sides of the campus, so seeing each other was some kind of a miracle. They didn't hang out often either, Orihime was always too busy with school to do anything afterwards. She suddenly felt bad for growing away from her friends. It wasn't really her fault though. After the fight was over, they really didn't have any reason to stay friends. she had been so focused on her problems that she didn't even notice anything else. It was something that she regretted now as she watched Uryu run to catch up to her. Stopping beside her, he asked, "So there's this rumor that you and Ichigo are a couple now, is it true?" He was never someone that believed rumors, he needed to hear the truth from the source. This was especially true when his friends were involved. Orihime tried to act embarrassed, "It's not really that big of a deal. I can't believe the news had spread so fast in only a day." Uryu looked skeptical, "Of course it would spread. The two most sought after people finally agree to a relationship, but with each other. All the girls are jealous of you and all the guys hate Ichigo. Well I have some things to do, it was nice seeing you. Goodbye." With that, Uryu walked off.

What Uryu said made sense. When they first started here, they had received multiple confessions. But they always turned them down until finally everyone agreed that no one would try to go after them. It would be unfair for one person to get one of the idols, so no one got to be with them. It was like something you would see in a manga. But Orihime and Ichigo had been thankful for it, they would no longer have to turn people down. Now they were together so everyone else was a mix of upset and happy. If they were a normal couple, Orihime would have been proud that everyone else was jealous. But they weren't a normal couple. Normal couples were drawn together by love, their relationship was built on fear. It was quite sad, actually. Everyone was jealous of their relationship, but it was just a farce. It wasn't real. Everything that they believed was a lie. Sitting down to continue her work, Orihime thought about what she was doing. She was pretending to be something that she wasn't and it was exhausting. She wondered how long she could keep this up.

Finishing her work, Orihime packed up her things and left the library. Of course, Ichigo was waiting outside to walk her home. The walk back to her apartment was quiet. He seemed to be thinking about something and Orihime wondered what it was. They didn't say a single word to each other until they reached her door. Reaching for her keys, she heard him ask, "Can I come in?" His tone said that there was no room for an argument so she just agreed. They went inside and she walked towards the bathroom. Grabbing her arm, he stopped her. Orihime felt fear shoot through her at his tight grip. What had she done? Did he realize that she was faking it? A million scenarios flashed in her mind until he finally said, "What were you doing with Uryu today?" She was confused. What did Uryu have to do with this? "We were just talking," feeling his grip tighten, she continued, "We hardly ever get to see each other. We were just catching up." Ichigo's face grew even darker. He seemed to dislike her answer, but Orihime couldn't understand why. His grip kept getting tighter and she cried out. He disliked that even more. Pulling his arm back, he slapped her.

Orihime felt the sting reverberate through her whole body. She was frozen to her spot, too scared to even try to defend herself. Why was this happening? Her thoughts were a jumbled mess and while she was trying to sort them, Ichigo started talking. "Don't try to lie to me! I saw you guys together. You were blushing, so what were you guys talking about?" Orihime was stunned. She had been blushing because she was telling Uryu about Ichigo. Why was he getting mad about it? Was he really this jealous? Orihime thought that his possessiveness was targeted toawrds Ulquiorra. Apparently that was wrong, he seemed to be jealous of every male in her life. She was trying to think of the right thing to say when Ichigo grew impatient. Grabbing her hair, he yelled into her face, "You whore! You don't even have a way to explain yourself, do you?" He slapped her again. Ichigo was careful not to hit her too hard. If he hit harder it would cause bruises that she couldn't cover up and she would have to miss school again. He worked hard to hold back, but she was making it so difficult. If she would just behave, he wouldn't have to hit her. It really was all her fault. He wasn't at fault here.

He pulled on her hair, a few strands coming loose from her scalp. Orihime cried out. Her sounds just made him angrier, "If you have time to cry, then you have time to answer my questions! Now tell me what you were talking about with Uryu!" He wanted her to give him answers, but he wasn't giving her time to say anything. He yanked on her hair again, her mouth opened to scream but she held it back. She finally managed to reply, "I was talking to him about you. He wanted to know if we were really together. I'm sorry. But it really was nothing." He had raised his hand to hit her, but it stopped in the air. Smiling, he let go of her and said, "Well why didn't you say so earlier? You know, if you were smarter I wouldn't have to keep doing these things. Really Orihime, can't you think about your actions a little bit? Try to consider how your actions will affect me, okay? I'm sorry that it came to this, but it really is your fault. You should be thankful, I even held back for your sake. You'll still be able to go to school tomorrow. I should get home. Consider your behavior today, Orihime. Make sure it doesn't happen again. I love you. See you tomorrow!" He kissed her cheek and left. When she heard the door shut, Orihime sank to the floor.

She sat there for a while, thinking about what Ichigo had said. He was right, it was her fault. If she had just ignored Uryu none of this would have happened. If she took in her surroundings and saw Ichigo watching them, she could have avoided this. She was stupid and she probably deserved this. After all, it was her fault he was forced to do this in the first place. First she fell in love with the enemy, then ignored Ichigo for years, she finally agreed to go out with him just to go back on her decision. She couldn't blame him for being angry. It was her fault and she deserved all this. Going into the bathroom, she looked at herself. He was right, she should be thankful. He had only left a little bruising this time. It could easily be covered up. He was being thoughtful, even though she was so stupid. She would have to thank him tomorrow. She climbed into bed and thought about how best to apologize to him. He had broken her. She was no longer the strong, independent woman she had been this morning. Laying down to go to sleep, she didn't even realize that she had become just a shell of herself.


	11. Chapter 11-Rain

It had been weeks since Orihime told Ulquiorra to stay away from her. Now, as he watched her from across the courtyard, he felt the sting of her words all over again. He yearned for her attention, making it hard to stay in his seat. He had never felt so much longing for someone. Every part of him was screaming for him to go to her, but he couldn't. Ichigo was with her, as he often was these days. They were basically inseparable. It was rare for Orihime to be without him and even when they were apart all she did was talk about him. Seeing how happy they were, Ulquiorra felt a rush of anger. That was meant to be his, she was meant to be his. He had no one to blame but himself, he knew that. It was hard not to blame Ichigo though. If he had just stayed indifferent to Orihime, this would have never happened. Why did he have to develop feelings for her? But Ulquiorra couldn't be angry at him because of that, after all he had also fallen in love with her. Orihime had an amazing amount of charm, she just didn't know it. Now Ichigo was the only one to experience her charms.

As he watched them, he knew that he should look away. For some reason, though, he just couldn't. Why couldn't he just move on? It would be so much easier. It would definitely hurt less if he moved on. Then he wouldn't care if she was with someone else. He could just go on with his life and never have to worry about her again. He could go back to having no feelings. He watched as Ichigo planted a kiss on her cheek, and knew that he could never move on. The pain he felt at seeing them together was a reminder that he could never go back to who he was before her. He could never forget the love and longing he felt for her, no matter how much he wished he could.

Tired of watching the scene in front of him, Ulquiorra rose from his seat. He needed to go to class. As he walked across the campus all he heard was talk about the "star couple". He sighed, no matter where he went he couldn't get away from their happiness. People were always talking about them. All the jealousy the school had felt has now transformed into happiness. He seemed to be the only person who was bitter about their relationship. The girls were the worst, they loved to gossip about what was going on in Orihime's relationship. They went on about it through their whole class. Ulquiorra couldn't even study without hearing about them. They were everywhere. Was this supposed to be divine punishment for all the bad things he had done in his life? Was he destined to watch the girl he loved be in love with someone else? He probably deserved it, but it still wasn't pleasant.

Listening to his professor drone on, he thought about how he got here. He looked back on his memories, playing them in his mind. He had woken up in a hospital four years ago, not even knowing who he was at first. The doctor's all said that he was found on the street, barely alive. Apparently he had been in a coma for about six months. His memory loss didn't seem to be a surprise to them, they said it was common in people who had been in a coma. His memories would probably come back on their own. They were only slightly correct. After about a week in the hospital, the only thing he remembered was his name. Nothing else came back to him in the months that he was in the hospital. None of his memories returned in the years after he left the hospital either. At first he was frustrated with it, there were so many things that he didn't understand. Who was he? Why did his appearance look so different from everyone else? The green stripes on his face, the skull-looking thing that covered his head, and the hole that was in his chest. These were all things that he didn't understand, but he adapted to them over time. At first he was always stuck with that weird looking skull-hat thing, but now he was able to make it go away. If he wanted it to show, he could make it visible. But most of the time, he kept it hidden. It would freak people out. It took him a long time to be able to get rid of it, but he availed. He did the same thing with the stripes on his face. At first they were a bright green and everyone would stare at them. But, now he was able to tone the color down to the point that people hardly even saw them. The hole in his chest was the only thing that he couldn't fix. No matter what he had tried, the hole would not close. He was careful to not wear anything that would show his chest. Over the course of the past four years, he had adapted to the world around him. He had gotten a job, saved money, and even enrolled in college. He had thought that he would never get his memories. It had been four years, the doctors said that getting his memory back would probably never happen if it hadn't yet. Unless something he saw or heard jogged his memory, he would probably never remember. Seeing Orihime brought back his memories. Now that he remembered everything, he understood who he was. He was an Espada. The hole in his chest was because he was hollow on the inside. But if he really was completely hollow on the inside, why did he feel the way he did? Why did he have such strong feelings for Orihime? He was so confused. He shouldn't really care about her, yet he did and he had no idea why.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when his class was dismissed. He never paid attention to his classes, but somehow he was still here. How he hadn't failed yet was a mystery to him. He looked out the window and saw that it looked like it was going to rain. He hated the rain. It didn't appeal to him at all. It was cold, wet, and he absolutely hated it. For that reason, he always kept an umbrella with him. People thought he was silly for doing so, but on days like these they wished that they had the foresight to do the same thing. As if the sky agreed with him, rain started pelting the windows. It was really coming down now. He had never been so grateful for umbrellas. The storm was only getting worse now. Lightning flashed outside the window and thunder boomed over Ulquiorra's head. Deciding that now would be a good time to head home, he opened his umbrella and went into the storm.

It was a mess outside. Trying to get out of the rain, people were running everywhere. Ulquiorra laughed at them. If they had been as smart as he was, they wouldn't be freaking out right now. It was then that he saw her, her bright orange hair standing out in the dim light. Orihime was running through the rain, by herself. Ichigo was nowhere to be seen. Ulquiorra couldn't control himself anymore, he had to go to her, this may be his only chance to do so. Running to her, her put the umbrella over her head. When she didn't feel the rain anymore she looked up, and her expression changed to panic. Ulquiorra didn't understand re reaction. Orihime shoved away from him, running into the rain. Ulquiorra chased after her. He closed his umbrella, running with it open was not easy, he would be faster this way. He finally caught up with her and grabbed her sleeve. "You're going to get soaked, Orihime! Come on, let's go inside." She wouldn't look at him, she just tried to shake him off again. Was she really this upset with him? When she found that she couldn't shake him off, she tried to yell at him. "Get off of me, Ulquiorra! Please, just let me go. I can't go through that again." Ulquiorra was confused, what didn't she want to go through? Her voice was filled with panic. She was begging him to let her go. He didn't know what she didn't want to experience again, but, whatever it was, she was terrified of it. He couldn't just leave her alone like this. He tried to turn her towards him. She struggled, but it was no use. In the end, she had to turn towards him. Her eyes stared back into his own, pleading with him. They were both getting soaked. The umbrella was pointless now. Orihime's hair was weighed down by the rain and falling into her face. She went to move her hair, brushing her cheek in the process. Ulquiorra looked at the spot she had brushed, it looked smudged. He reached for her face and brushed the spot with his thumb. Orihime froze. Ulquiorra looked at his thumb, it was covered with make-up. Looking at Orihime, he saw why. Where his thumb had just brushed was a giant purple spot. He examined her face closely now, seeing that the rain had washed away the majority of her make-up. The the majority of her face was covered in bruises. He reached out to wipe the rest of her make-up away, but Orihime caught his hand. "Please don't. Just act like you didn't see this. Please." Tears were falling from her eyes now, helping the rain wash away the remainder of her make-up, revealing more of the marks. Ulquiorra was furious. Who had done this? How could they do this to Orihime? "Who did this to you, Orihime? How could Ichigo not have noticed?" At the mention of his name, Orihime looked away. That son of a bitch. It was Ichigo who did this. Ulquiorra couldn't believe that he didn't notice this before. If he thought back on her behavior, it made sense. She was always careful around him, always apologizing for things that didn't require it. She had stopped talking to any boys. How could nobody have noticed? Looking at her bruised face, he felt both anger and sadness. "Orihime, how long has he been doing this? Is this why you sent me away?" She looked past him, and froze, her terror showing on her face. She ripped her arm out of his grasp, turn and ran. Ulquiorra moved to go after her, but saw Ichigo run past him. Ichigo had seen it all. He saw Ulquiorra chase after her, he saw them touch, he saw that Ulquiorra knew what was going on. His expression was one of pure rage. Orihime was in danger. Ulquiorra raced after them.


	12. Chapter 12-Blackness

Orihime had never been so afraid in her entire life. She knew that Ichigo was behind her, knew what was coming for her. Why did this have to happen? She had worked so hard in the past couple weeks. The beatings had even lessened a little bit. Why, why, why, why? She just couldn't process this. She should have just turned away from Ulquiorra. She should have known better than to even let him near her. Now not only did Ichigo see them together, he knew that Ulquiorra knew about the abuse. There was no way that she could let Ichigo catch her. She had no idea what he would do.

The rain was still pouring down, making Orihime's body feel numb. She should have felt cold, but, at that moment, she didn't care. Thanks to the rain, there were no people out on the streets. If Ichigo caught up to her out here, there would be no one to help her. She had to get home. Her home was the only place that she could be safe from him. She just had to pray that she got there before he did.

Ulquiorra hated the rain. Not only was it cold and wet, but it hindered his ability to see. Chasing someone was no problem for him, but in the rain there was no way. He had lost sight of Ichigo a while ago. There was no way that he could beat Ichigo to Orihime's place. He just hoped that maybe he would get there in time to help her.

Looking around, he noticed that he had no idea where he was. Seriously? How could he get lost at a time like this? Orihime needed him and he couldn't even stay on the right path. This stupid rain was to blame. It was so hard to see that he had lost his way. He needed to hurry up and figure out where he was or he would never be able to help Orihime. Sighing, he turned around and went back the way he came.

Orihime almost jumped with joy when she saw her building. She knew that Ichigo probably wasn't far behind, so she decided there was no time to take the elevator. She would have to take the stairs or she wouldn't make it home before he got here. Tearing the door open, she turned to the emergency staircase. She lived on the fourth floor so she needed to hurry. She took the stairs two at a time, amazed that she didn't stumble or fall. She quickly reached her floor and ran to her door. She opened the door, then closed and locked it. Ichigo couldn't break down the front door. That would cause a scene and he wanted to avoid that. She was finally safe.

Though she was safe, she was soaking wet from the rain. If she stayed like this, she would get sick. It would probably be better to shower and change into some dry clothes. Going to her room, she grabbed some clothes and made her way to the bathroom. Now that the adrenaline had seeped out of her, her legs were shaking. Not trusting her legs, she decided it would be safer to take a filled the tub and began to take off her clothes. She reached for a towel and realized that she hadn't grabbed one. Pulling on her clothes, she left the bathroom. She turned towards the hall closet, and saw Ichigo.

Orihime felt her terror attempt to freeze her in place, but she refused to stay here. Turning, she ran into her bedroom. Ichigo followed after her, fuming. She tried to close the door, but he caught it easily. Pushing, he slammed the door open. Orihime was thrown to the ground. She attempted to crawl away, but Ichigo slammed his foot down on her leg. He was stepping on her, making it impossible for her to move. As he watched her, he felt his anger rise up again. Why couldn't she just listen to him? Did she think that he liked doing this to her? He was about to lift some of his weight off of her, but then he looked at her face. Seeing the bruises, he remembered Ulquiorra. Red clouded his vision.

Orihime watched as his expression changed. For a second she thought he was going to let her go, but she was wrong. No sooner than she had the thought, Ichigo pressed his foot down even harder. Orihime screamed, unable to bear the pain. If he didn't stop, she was sure that her leg was going to break. Once again Ichigo lifted some of the pressure off of her. Looking at her, he asked, "Why Orihime? I just don't understand why you can't just listen to me. I don't enjoy this! Hurting you is not what I want. I want us to be happy. But you just keep ruining it! Why did you have to go to him? Am I not enough? What can he give you that I can't?" With every word, he put his weight back on her leg. It was unbearable, it hurt so bad. She thought about Ichigo's question and something inside her snapped. She had done everything that he asked! There was no reason for him to be acting like this. It's not like she went to Ulquiorra, he came to her. For the first time in weeks, Orihime refused to take the blame.

She was done with this act. Looking at him, she let her face show every ounce of disgust that she felt for him. "You want to know why I do this, Ichigo? The truth is, I don't do anything! I don't talk to people. I don't go out. I barely even leave my house anymore! All to keep you happy! I'll tell you exactly what Ulquiorra can give me. With him, I don't have to pretend to love him. I wouldn't have to walk on eggshells around other guys. I could have friends, go out, and have a relationship where I'm actually happy. But you know what he'll never give me, Ichigo? Bruises! He would never ever hit me! Unlike you." With each word that came out of her mouth, Ichigo's face grew darker and darker. They stared at each other for a while, his face showing anger and hers showing pure hatred.

Ichigo was the one who broke the silence, "You know what Orihime? You're absolutely right. Ulquiorra is a way better match for you than I am." Orihime was surprised. She didn't expect him to give up so easily. She opened her mouth to say something, but Ichigo slammed his foot down on her leg harder than ever before. There was a snap and Orihime was lost in a world of pain. Ichigo was screaming at her, "Did you think I would just give up like that? You're mine, not his. If I can't have you, no one can." Orihime could barely hear him over her own screams. She didn't even have time to register his threat. All she could feel was the pain from her broken leg. Unconsciousness was starting to overcome her, until she felt a pain in the side of her head. Ichigo had punched her. "I can't have you passing out. I want you awake for all of this. But for god's sake, would you stop screaming." She didn't listen to his command, and ended up with a fist to her stomach. "I said shut up, damn it!," Ichigo screamed at her. She needed to get away from him. But with a broken leg, there was no way she could run. But she couldn't give up. Lifting herself on her elbows, she tried to crawl away. She didn't get very far before Ichigo grabbed her by her injured leg. Pain shot through her. "Where do you think you're going, Orihime? I didn't say you could leave yet." Smirking, he lowered his face to hers. "I meant what I said earlier, Orihime. I really don't like doing this to you. If you apologize, we can stop this here." In response, Orihime spit in his face.

"You little bitch," Ichigo screamed in disgust. Grabbing her by her hair, he started to drag her out of the room. The way he was holding her made her leg scrape across the floor and the pain was excruciating. She tried to struggle against him, but it had no effect on him. All it did was hurt her more. She had no idea where he was taking her. In the midst of her pain, she had forgotten the layout of her own apartment. It wasn't until she felt the tile against her skin that she realized he had brought her to the bathroom. What were they doing here? She soon had the answer to her question. Ichigo grabbed her by her hair and dragged her to the bathtub. He intended to drown her! At her realization, she started to struggle against him. But, it had no effect. Ichigo forced Orihime's head under the water and held it there. She beat her hands against the tub, trying desperately to find a way out. She tried to hold her breath, but she needed air. She tried to push up against Ichigo's hand. It was no use, she couldn't get out of the water. She was panicking. Her body was trying to get her to pass out, but she resisted it. If she passed out, her body would force her to breathe. That would bring water into her lungs and she would drown. Trying to remain conscious, she smacked her injured leg off the ground. The pain made her feel more awake. She knew this was only a momentary solution though. Without oxygen, she would surely pass out. She tried to struggle a little more, but it was futile. Her panic was starting to set back in when she was suddenly pulled out of the water. She coughed and breathed in big gulps of air. Ichigo stood up, "It's a shame, but I have to go to work. I'll be back later, though. Don't even think of getting any ideas, Orihime. I'll find you no matter where you go. If you don't make a fuss, I'll make it quick. You won't even feel anything." She tried to plead with him, but he brushed her off. "I have to do this, love. This is the only way I can keep you for myself. If I don't do this, then you'll just leave me and run off with Ulquiorra, won't you?" She shook her head, but he wasn't buying it. "I'm not falling for that again. You never fell out of love with him, so I don't think you can do it now. This is just how it has to be." He ignored her pleas and left her sitting there, bloody and broken.

Orihime knew that he was going to kill her. He had only stopped earlier because he had to go to work. He said to stay put, but there was no way she was going to do that. She wasn't just gonna sit here and wait for him to kill her. She would go into hiding. There was no way he could find her. She would use the sink to get herself standing, then she could hop to the phone and call for help. As she started to lift herself up, the door opened. "I forgot my phone, Orihime." Ichigo saw her trying to get up, and shoved her down onto the floor again. Sighing, he said, "I thought I told you not to move, Orihime. You leave me with no choice. Sorry, love." He lifted his foot above her arm. He was going to break her arm! "No, please don't do this. I won't move, Ichigo! I swear!" Orihime tried to reason with him, but he just shook his head at her. Bringing his foot down, he broke Orihime's arm. She screamed again. Ichigo turned to leave, but looked back at her curled up form, "I have to make sure you don't move, Orihime. Please understand." She ignored him, too absorbed in her own pain. She was doomed. There was no way she could lift herself up with just one arm. She couldn't even crawl. There was no hope for her anymore. He was going to kill her, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She wallowed in her pity for a while, but then realized something. She didn't have to give him that satisfaction. Crawling into the bathtub, she felt her heart harden. There was no time to be feeling self pity. She needed to do this before he got back. Reaching above her, she grabbed a razor. She knew exactly what to do. She couldn't let him kill her, instead she would die on her own terms. Using her good arm, she dragged the razor across her wrist. She closed her eyes, waiting for the blackness to take her.


	13. Chapter 13-Aftermath

Ulquiorra had finally managed to find his way to Orihime's apartment. Finding his way back to her place was actually a lot harder than he anticipated. He had no idea how he had gotten so lost, but he was finally here. Hurrying to her floor, he ran to her door. He knocked, but got no answer. Maybe she was asleep. He just needed to know that she was okay. Knocking louder, he prayed that she was alright. When there was no answer, he tried the handle and found that it was unlocked. Walking in, he shouted her name. He heard no reply, only silence. He became frantic. Where was she? She had to be here, please let her be here. Let her be ran to her bedroom and couldn't find her there. As he was leaving the room, he noticed a dark trail leading out of the room. He arrived at the bathroom and almost fainted. As he looked at the scene in front of him, he felt his heart break.

There was blood all over the bathroom, but his main focus was the bathtub. Blood had turned the water red and all he could see was her orange hair floating on the surface. Rushing to the tub, he screamed her name. She didn't stir at all, his heart dropped. He reached under the water and pulled her out. She was so pale. It wasn't normal and he needed to get help. Pulling his cellphone from his pocket, he called 911. When a woman answered, he was basically yelling at her, "I need an ambulance! Right now! Please, there's so much blood. She won't wake up! What should I do? I don't want to lose her. Help me!" The dispatcher was used to this kind of thing, people usually panicked when they called. She dispatched an ambulance, and then spoke to Ulquiorra, "Sir, I need you to calm down. I know you're worried. I dispatched an ambulance to your location. They should be there soon. Now, I need you to check the patient for me. Are they male or female?" Ulquiorra tried to remain calm, but he had never had to deal with emotions like this before, it was so difficult. "She's female. Her name's Orihime." The dispatcher was relieved to hear that he had calmed down. It was hard to get anything done when the caller was freaking out. "I need you to check her for injuries, can you do that? Put the phone on speaker and tell me what you see." Ulquiorra did as she said, putting the phone on the floor. "There's so much blood. Her face is all bruised. Her scalp is bleeding," Ulquiorra looked her over closely and noticed her leg. "Her leg's broken. You can see the bone. That's probably where all the blood came from." He heard the woman's voice come through the phone, "I'm going to need you to try and stop any bleeding that she has. Use towels or anything that you can find to put pressure on the wounds. This should help her hold out until the ambulance gets there." Ulquiorra did as she said, wrapping a towel around Orihime's leg. He searched for more injuries. Pulling her sleeve up, he groaned. "Sir, what's wrong?" He could hear the dispatcher's voice, but was far away. Orihime's beautiful skin was streaked with red. And all of it led back to her wrist. She had attempted to take her own life. Why? What happened here?

The dispatcher was getting frantic and ulquiorra could hear her yelling. "She cut her wrist and her arm is broken. I'm going to try to stop the bleeding." He put pressure on Orihime's wounds, trying to make sure that he didn't harm her further. He heard the door open and the paramedics tried to take Orihime from him. He resisted, how could he let her out of his sight again? They couldn't take her from him. He quickly realized that he was being foolish. All he was doing was endangering her life. If she didn't get help soon, she would die. Letting her go, Ulquiorra felt his sorrow take control of him. He had been able to hold on until the ambulance got here, but now he was a mess. He didn't understand all these feelings and looking at Orihime just made it even worse. He knew that Ichigo was responsible for her other injuries, but what about the one on her wrist? That was self-inflicted. Why did Orihime try to take her life? He couldn't dwell on his questions, though. Orihime needed him and he needed to get it together.

He rode in the ambulance with her. When they reached the hospital, everything moved so fast. They forced him to stay in the waiting room while they examined Orihime. He couldn't sit still so he paced the whole room, all the other people watching him. He couldn't care that he was being stared at , the only thing he cared about was on the other side of that door. It took all he had to stay where he was and not burst through that door. It seemed like ages before the doctor returned. "The breaks to her arm and leg are severe. They will never heal right on their own. We will need to perform surgery to put them back in their correct places. Also, she lost a lot of blood so she will need a transfusion. You got there just in time, any longer and she would have died. Since her arm was broken, she could only cut one wrist. That is the reason she is still alive. If she had been able to cut both, she would have bled out twice as fast. Her injury saved her life. And so did you. We will come get you when she is out of surgery." WIth that, the doctor turned and left.

Ulquiorra basically collapsed into his chair. He was so relieved. Orihime would live. He was so scared that he was going to lose her, he could barely breathe. Now that he was assured of her safety, he could let his anger take control of his thoughts. How could Ichigo do this to Orihime? Nobody deserved to be abused, especially Orihime. If he ever saw Ichigo again, all hell would break loose. All he could feel was his anger at Ichigo, but if he looked under that anger, it wouldn't all be for Ichigo. He was also angry at himself. It was his fault that Orihime was in this situation. He let her be with him in the first place. He didn't even notice what was happening to her until it was shoved in his face. It was his fault all this happened. If he had just fought for her, this would have never happened. If he had never left her in the first place, she would have been safe. He was certain that Orihime would hate him when she woke up. She would blame him like he blamed himself. He found the love of his life, just to lose her again.

It had been days, but Orihime still hadn't woken up. The doctor said that her trauma had caused her to go into a coma. Ulquiorra was concerned that she hadn't woken up yet, but the doctors assured him that she would be fine. She would wake up when she was ready. Right now, her mind is trying to protect itself from everything that had happened to her. They were sure that she would wake up in time, they just didn't know when. Her tests showed that her body was recovering well, her mind just needed to do the same thing.

Ulquiorra never left her side. The doctors and nurses told him that it would be better if he went home, but he refused. He would never leave her again. Until Orihime herself told him to go away, he was staying here. The staff eventually realized that he wouldn't be leaving and just worked around him. He never got in there way when they were treating Orihime, but he never left her alone. He knew that this was one of the safest hospitals, but he was still on edge. No one had seen Ichigo for days. He could be anywhere and normal people couldn't sense him if he was in his Soul Reaper form. It was safer for Orihime if Ulquiorra stayed here. At least that's what he tried to tell himself. Really he was just trying to spend as much time with her as he could. When she woke, she would surely send him away. He was prepared for that, but for now he just wanted to burn her image into his brain.

He looked her over, memorizing her features. The bruises on her face were starting to heal. She was wearing a gown, but underneath he knew that her torso was wrapped in bandages. Apparently, her ribs had been cracked from a blow she took to the stomach. Her right arm and leg were each wrapped in a green cast. Ulquiorra had chosen green because she seemed to love it. As he looked at the cast, he remembered her wrist. The wound had been the reason that she almost died. It had been bad enough to require six stitches. The stitches would come out in a few weeks. But the casts had to stay on for at least two months. The doctors had come to speak to him after the surgery. They said that Orihime was extremely lucky. The break in her leg was just a fraction of an inch from making sure that she could never use it again. Luckily, they were able to repair it and in time, she should be able to use it before the assault.

Ulquiorra had told the hospital everything. They knew that Orihime was being abused by her so-called boyfriend, Ichigo. They were confused when they learned that Ulquiorra was not Orihime's boyfriend. He was so protective of her that they just naturally came to that conclusion. No one brought it up though. Ulquiorra had seemed so intimidating that they couldn't work up the courage to say anything. He had given them Ichigo's description and they distributed it to all of security. They thought Orihime was safe, but Ulquiorra knew better. It would be easy for Ichigo to sneak in here. He could slip past every one without them even noticing, but not Ulquiorra. There was no way that Ulquiorra wouldn't notice him. If Ulquiorra was here, there was no way for Ichigo to lay a hand on Orihime. He wouldn't even be able to get close.

Ulquiorra was brought out of his thoughts when he heard a sound. What was it? It sounded like whimpering. He searched all over the room, but wasn't able to find the source of the noise. He sat back down, reading a book. After about an hour, he heard the sound again. This time it was louder, though. He looked around again, but, yet again, he found no source for the sound. Walking back to his seat, he stopped at Orihime's bed. Reaching out, he touched her cheek. Her eyes snapped open and she screamed.


	14. Chapter 14-Awake

Orihime was afraid. Where was she? It was so dark here. She lifted her hand in front of her face, but could barely see it. What was going on? Suddenly, she was in her bedroom. She was laying on the ground… staring up at Ichigo. She recognized this scene, this is when he snapped her leg. She needed to get away, but couldn't. No matter how much she told her body to move, it was pointless. It was like she was a prisoner in her own body. She still felt the pain though. When Ichigo brought his foot down on her leg, she felt her leg break. The pain was just as bad as the first time. Why was this happening to her? She was sure that she had died. Was this her hell? Was she doomed to spend the rest of eternity reliving these horrible moments? The idea filled her with dread. She had taken her life in order to get away from Ichigo's abuse, now she had to relive it over and over. Was it all for nothing? If this is how she had to live, what was the point of keeping Ichigo from killing her? It might've been easier that way.

She was brought out of her thoughts when she saw that the scene had changed. Surprisingly, she wasn't around Ichigo. Standing in front of her was Ulquiorra. Her heart raced at the sight of him. For the past few weeks she had worked hard to suppress her feelings for him, now they were hitting her full force. She didn't have to pretend here. She let her love for him fill her, saving her from the pain she felt. Why didn't she choose him? If she had just started to listen to his explanation, could they have avoided all of this? As if the world could read her mind, she was suddenly back there, sitting across from Ulquiorra . He was explaining himself. Unlike the time with Ichigo, Orihime could control herself. Instead of running away from him, she decided to stay and hear him out. Ulquiorra told her about his life for the past few years, and she told him about his life before that. He started to get his memories. Everything was different than before. She never ran into Ichigo, she had Ulquiorra , and she was happy.

It was like she was living an alternate life. A better life. Her and Ulquiorra had eventually become a couple. They were happy. Ichigo was still her friend and even supported their relationship. It was strange. This was so much different from what she had previously experienced. If this was how she was supposed to spend eternity, she would be happy. Her life continued. Her and Ulquiorra were happier than ever. They had been together for years, and were preparing to get married. Orihime was so excited. She had dreamed about this day for a long time and now it was finally here. As she got ready, she started to feel sluggish. What was going on? Her vision started to blue around the edges. She could here something. What was it? It sounded like beeping. After a few minutes though, everything went back to normal. Everyone took their places and the wedding started. Orihime started walking down the aisle. Why didn't it seem like she was getting any closer to Ulquiorra? The aisle just kept stretching in front of her. What was this? She reached out to him, whimpering. This couldn't be happening! Was he going to be taken from her again. Everything went black. Orihime screamed.

When Orihime opened her eyes, she was blinded by a bright light. Where was she? Everything around her seemed to be chaos. There was non-stop beeping, people were running around, and they kept screaming to each other. What the hell was going on? She was getting really tired of waking up in strange place. Life really was cruel. She was finally in a happy dream, now she didn't even know what this one was supposed to be. She tried to tell the people around her to calm down, but she couldn't speak. There was something in her throat. She tried to move her arm to get it, but found that she couldn't move her arm. She looked over at it, surprised to find that her arm was in a cast. She looked down to her leg, it was also in a cast. This dream was strange. Her other dreams were either that she was in the process of getting hurt or that she had never gotten hurt in the first place. What was going on? The beeping around her started to increase in frequency. A gray haired man leaned over her, "Please calm down. Everything is okay. You are in the hospital, you've been under my care for the past week. You were in a very traumatic accident. Do you remember anything?" Orihime was confused. Why was she in the hospital? Didn't she die? She listened to the beeping. Was that her heartbeat? In the other dreams, she never had a heartbeat. That really meant that she was actually alive. It was then that she realized what being alive meant.

If she was alive, Ichigo would come back for her. She needed to get out of here. It would be easy to get to her in a hospital. She needed to find a safe place to hide. She pulled on the tube that was down her throat. The machine that monitored her heartbeat was beeping like crazy, letting everyone in the room hear how distressed she was. With only one good arm, it was hard to struggle at all. The doctor was yelling at the nurses to calm her down. They kept trying to get her to relax. If she kept pulling at the tube, she could damage her throat. Orihime didn't care. Who cared if it hurt her throat? Ichigo was just going to kill her anyway. Anything that happened to her now didn't matter. She was still struggling when she heard a new voice speak to her, "Stop it, Orihime." She looked towards the voice and felt her heart jump. Right there beside her was Ulquiorra. He was staring at her, his emerald eyes boring into her own. Her heartbeat was starting to slow and she stopped trying to fight the nurses. "Let them help you, Orihime. If you behave, they'll take the tube out for you." She dropped her hand from the tube, deciding that he was right. The doctor remove the tube from her throat, and Orihime sucked in a stinging breath.

Every breath scraped against her sore throat. The doctor saw her discomfort and assured her, "It will get better. If you try to talk, it'll hurt even more. Just drink a few glasses of water, that should help it. For now, just nod or shake your head to answer our questions, okay?" Orihime nodded her head in agreement. He continued, "Do you remember who you are?" She nodded. "Do you remember what happened to you?" Her heart rate sped up a little bit, but she nodded. "Do you remember who did it to you?" She nodded. "All right, that should be all we need for now. I'm going to inspect your health, then after that you can rest." He checked over her and after he had decided that her healing was on track, he left, taking all the nurses with him.

Since the doctor had left, it was just her and Ulquiorra in the room. The silence was almost stifling. She wanted to talk to him, but didn't know what to say. He felt the same exact way. He wanted to talk about what happened, but didn't know if it was too soon to bring it up. Instead, he just handed her a glass of water. If they even wanted to hold a conversation, she needed to be able to talk. Orihime gulped the glass down, then another and another. Her throat didn't hurt so bad now. She opened her mouth and tried to speak, "Ulquiorra." He jumped at the sound of his name. Her throat didn't hurt that bad so she decided to get on with it but he beat her to it. "I need you to tell me what happened, Orihime. If it's too painful for you, you can stop at anytime. But right now I just can't fathom why you tried to kill yourself. I need an explanation and I need to know what happened to you. I need to know what led you to that point." Orihime didn't want to tell him. Telling him meant that she had to relive it. All she wanted to do was forget that it ever happened. She just wanted to find a safe place to hide and never think about it again. She looked at him, "You really don't want to know." His expression changed to one of anger, "I absolutely do want to know. I want to know why I found you laying in a bloody bathtub. I want to know why you tried to kill yourself. I want to know why this happened to you. I don't just want to know, I need to know." Orihime was surprised to hear that he had been the one to save her. She felt horrible. He wasn't meant to be dragged into this. She had tried so hard to keep him out of this. Her face must have shown how miserable she was because Ulquiorra's expression softened a little. Figuring that she needed to tell him the truth, she turned to him, "I guess I should start from the beginning, huh?" He nodded. Taking a deep breath, she started the story of how they got here, "It started after you told me you didn't remember anything. I didn't believe you. I thought you were just lying to me. As I ran away, I bumped into Ichigo. He kissed me and asked me out. I didn't love him, and he knew that. He said that it would be fine if I just grew to love him again. He would be patient. I was so hurt. I thought you were just messing with me, playing with my feelings. I wanted to forget you. I agreed to his request. We became a couple. But then you remembered your past and told me that you loved me. I was so happy. Do you remember when Ichigo dragged me away from you? I fought him the whole way back to my apartment. I told him that I couldn't be with him, that I loved you. Something in him just snapped I guess. That was the first time he ever hit me. He told me that I should just give up on you. He tried to force me to kiss him, but I bit his tongue. I ran from him and hid in the bathroom. There was no way that I could get out the situation safely, so I just told him that I was sorry and that I was going to stay with him." Orihime wiped some tears from her eyes, sighing. She continued to tell him the details, "Then you showed up at my door. I was so bruised that I couldn't hide it. I needed to keep you from seeing me. I needed to get you to go away so that you weren't there when Ichigo showed up. So, I said all those terrible things to you. It got you to leave, but I didn't mean any of them. After a while, the beatings started to get better. He didn't hit me as hard or as frequent. But then that storm happened. I was careless. You saw the bruises and he saw me with you. I ran ome before he got there and I thought I was safe. But, he somehow got into my apartment. He was so mad. He demanded why I always did this to him. But, I snapped. I told him off. I told him that you were better for me. He got mad and broke my leg." She flinched at the memory of the pain, but continued, "He told me to apologize, but I spit in his face. It just made him madder. He dragged me to the bathroom, and forced my face in the bath water I had ran. He was trying to drown me. I was so scared, but then he stopped. He assured me that he would come back to finish the job. He left and I tried to get help, but he found me. That was when he broke my arm. He left me there, broken and defenseless. I decided to take my life in my own hands. So I cut my wrist. I guess that's where you found me, huh? I'm sorry. You were never meant to be brought into this." Orihime had worked hard to tell the whole story, but now she fell apart. Tears poured down her face and sobs racked her chest.

Ulquiorra was frozen for a moment. He was feeling a million different things. He was proud of her for fighting back, sad that she had to suffer, happy that she loved him, but, most of all, he was angry. Ichigo had done this to her. He had even tried to kill her. If he loved her, then why would he do this? Ulquiorra couldn't fathom hurting her at all. He couldn't even think of saying anything that hurt her, let alone hitting her. But now Orihime was in front of him, broken and crying. He made his way to Orihime and brought her to his chest. His body had moved on its own, but it seemed the right thing to do. She felt so right in his arms and he felt whole with her there.

Orihime froze at the feeling of his hands on her. She should've been happy, but instead all she felt was fear. She kept seeing flashes of the abuse she suffered from Ichigo. Ulquiorra must've sensed her distress because he quickly let go. She looked at him and felt horrible, "I'm sorry. I just panicked. I don't understand what's going on." He wanted to make her feel better, wanted her to know that he was here. He knew that she was probably suffering from some form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. She probably didn't trust any man at all, it wasn't just him. But her rejection still hurt. He had waited so long for this, gone through so much and he couldn't even touch her. He felt athetic for even having the thought. After all, she had been through way more. He needed to get a grip on his feelings.

Orihime watched as Ulquiorra tried to work through his thoughts. She needed to stop wasting time here. Interrupting his thoughts, she spoke, "I need to leave, Ulquiorra. Ichigo said that he would come back. You said that I've been here for a week right? Then he's already had plenty of time to find me. I bet he's really mad. If he find me now, there will be no saving myself. You should probably hide too. He'll be really mad if he finds out that you were the one to save me." Ulquiorra was already prepared for this, of course. He had thought a lot about Orihime's safety. "You will not run away and neither will I. He will probably be able to find you no matter where you go. I know it'll be scary, but I promise that you'll be safe here. I will protect you, no matter what. I know I may seem unreliable, but I am still an Espada. Since I've regained my memories, I have also regained control of my powers. I may have lost to him last time, but it won't happen again. I was concerned for your safety last time, so I was distracted. Now I'm fighting for your safety. There is no way he can beat me. If he comes after you, I will destroy him. I can promise you that." Orihime was could hear the determination in his voice. She should have been scared, but she felt absolutely safe. She knew that Ulquiorra would protect her. He wouldn't let Ichigo, or anyone else, hurt her. Even if she were to argue with him, she could never win. Ulquiorra was dedicated to protecting her, there was no getting out of it now. He could see on her face that she had accepted what he was saying. Now that the important stuff was out of the way, she needed to rest. He walked to her and, being careful not to touch her, covered her up, "Sleep now, Orihime. You need your rest." She lay back and fell asleep. For the first time in years, she slept without nightmares.


	15. Chapter 15-Freedom

**I wanna thank everyone who's faved/followed me story so far! Also, thank you so much for the reviews! I'm glad you guys are enjoying the story.**

The next few days were spent waiting. Orihime was waiting for Ichigo to come for her and Ulquiorra was waiting for Orihime to send him away. He knew it was a matter of time. She hadn't said anything about him leaving, but he knew that she was thinking about it. What else would she be thinking about? He had made sure that she didn't worry about Ichigo, so that couldn't be it. There was really nothing else to think about, right? He was certain that she was trying to decide how to send him away, but he was wrong.

Orihime's thoughts were consumed by Ichigo. Where was he? Did he know where she was? If he did, why was she still alive? Was he biding his time until she got out the hospital? These questions ate away at her. She couldn't focus on anything else, only Ichigo. Why couldn't she just get Ichigo out of her mind? She wanted to forget about him, instead her thoughts consisted of nothing but him. She looked at Ulquiorra and saw him staring at her. He always looked like he was waiting for her to say something, but she didn't know what. Should she send him home? Would he even go if she told him to to? Did she really want him to go? She couldn't answer that question. Part of her was freaking out because a man was near her, another part of her couldn't even consider letting him go again. Unfortunately, her freak out side was winning. He hadn't tried to get near her again and she was thankful for that. But, him just standing on the other side of the room made her anxious. It was like her mind knew that he would never hurt her, but her body was running on instinct. She hoped that he didn't notice how she flinched every time that he moved.

Ulquiorra was aware that she was afraid of him, and it made him sad. He saw her flinch, but said nothing about it. If he said anything to her about it, it would make Orihime sad. That's not what he wanted. She had been through alot and he understood that. It was enough to just be near her. The doctor chose that moment to enter. He nodded to Ulquiorra then turned to Orihime, "Good news, little lady. Your tests show that you are completely fine. Of course, you arm and leg will need a while to recover. Lucky for you, those can heal outside the hospital. We are organizing your release right now. You should be out of here by tonight." With that, he left.

After hearing that she would be released, Orihime felt nothing but fear. She didn't want to leave the hospital. Ichigo hadn't come to attack get since she's been recovering. If she left the hospital and went home, would he come back to get her? The thought of him returning almost made Orihime vomit. Ulquiorra watched as Orihime struggled with the news of her freedom. He didn't expect her to be happy, but he hadn't expected her to be this distraught. He wanted to go to her, but he knew that would only make things worse. Truthfully, he hadn't really thought about Orihime being released. If she wasn't in hospital, he wasn't sure how to protect her. They didn't live near each other and the only time he ever saw her was at school. He needed to think of something. Just then, a nurse informed Ulquiorra that he needed to sign some paperwork since he was the one that brought Orihime in. He told her that her be right back, and walked out with the nurse.

Orihime was freaking out from all the scenarios playing in her head. None of them good and all of them ended with her dead. There was no way that Ichigo would spare her life twice and he wasn't going to fall for her tricks anymore. If he found her, she would lose her life. Ulquiorra had promised to keep her safe, but she didn't believe that he could. He was strong, but he had already lost to Ichigo once before. She didn't even want him involved. If he disappeared again, she didn't know if she could take it. She turned to get some water, noticing that the window was open. That's strange, she didn't think that Ulquiorra had opened the window. She was just starting to panic when someone grabbed her hair.

Ichigo was behind her, she knew it. He was the only one who handled her so roughly. Ulquiorra tried not to touch her and the nurses treated her like she might break. Ichigo was the only one who wanted her to break. He pulled her head back so she would turn to look at him. At the sight of him, she opened her mouth to scream, but he put his hand over her mouth, muffling her screams. "Orihime dear, you have to be quiet. If you scream, Ulquiorra will be here in no time and I can't let that happen. I've waited along time for him to leave your side, I can't have you ruining this opportunity. If you scream, I will kill you right here. Understood?" She nodded her head and he removed his hand. She didn't understand why she wasn't dead yet. Ichigo quickly answered her unasked question. "I know I said before that I would kill you instantly the next time I saw you. But, I've had already of time to think about it and I think that would be too easy. After all, you disobeyed me all the way up to the end. I heard you even tried to take your own life. I'm proud of your strength, but it was for nothing. Ulquiorra saved you, and now I can play with you some more. I'm not going to kill you now, but you never know when I will. I want you to live knowing that you can die at any time. I'll be seeing you, love." And with that, he kissed her. He licked his lips as he pulled back. He turned and left through the window, closing it behind him.

While Ulquiorra was finishing up the paperwork, he felt Ichigo's spiritual pressure. He ran back to Orihime's room, almost knocking into a nurse on his way. Orihime was in danger, he needed to get there before Ichigo could finish what he started. He slammed the door open to find only Orihime in the room. He ran to her, checking her for any new wounds. He was starting to worry about her because she hadn't said anything about him touching her. Whatever Ichigo had done to get had shocked her so much that she didn't even feel fear at him touching her. He tried asking her what happened but she just sat there. Eventually, she finally registered what was going on. He moved away from her and she explained what had happened, "He said that death would be too easy. Now he wants to play with me. He wants me to know that I could die at any time. And he kissed me," that seemed to piss her off more than anything."How dare he lay his lips on me again? Through our whole relationship, I was prepared to die. But I can't stand it when he kisses me. He doesn't have the right to touch me now." Ulquiorra was surprised that she wasn't scared, but he figured that she was in shock. She was ignoring the fact that she could die because she was trying to remain calm. Instead, she was focused on being mad about the kiss. He needed to focus on the other party, though. He needed to figure out a way to keep her safe. As he watched Orihime get ready to leave, an idea came to him.

Once Orihime was all packed up and ready to go, the nurses brought her a wheelchair. There was no way that she could walk or use crutches. When she saw the wheelchair, her face fell. It would be hard to do anything in the chair. She was even more unhappy when the doctor told her that it would be better to avoid going to school for awhile. She protested at first. She had missed enough classes, there was no way she could pass if she didn't go back. But one when look from Ulquiorra made her drop her argument. She couldn't make him change his mind and if he saw her at school, he would probably make her go home. When she was all situated in her chair, Ulquiorra started pushing her back home. It was actually unnecessary, her chair was automated because of her broken arm. She could've moved the chair herself, but instead decided that she would let him feel like he was in charge. When they reached her building, he pushed her into the elevator and pressed the button for her floor. She moved to look at him, "Thanks for bringing me home. It's pretty late so why don't you go home? I can manage from here." Ulquiorra didn't answer her. When the door opened, he pushed her to the door. He waited for her to unlock her door, then wheeled her inside. She tried again to dismiss him, but he just turned towards her. "Stop trying to get me to leave, Orihime. I'm staying here until you are safe. I'll sleep on the couch. No matter what you say, I will not leave. If you won't let me sleep on the couch, I'll sleep in the hallway." She knew he wouldn't leave, so she just sighed and wheeled herself to her room, leaving him to get situated in the living room.


	16. Chapter 16-Home

As she left the room, she turned to look at Ulquiorra. Just looking at him made her a giant, messed up ball of emotions. Part of her was happy that Ulquiorra would be staying at her place and another was afraid of him being so close to her. She didn't want to be afraid of him, she had never been afraid of him. He had hurt numerous people, kidnapped her, and fought Ichigo until he almost died, but she had never been afraid of him. The fear she felt towards him now wasn't even something that he deserved. It was all Ichigo's fault. She was filled with even more conflicting emotions when she thought of Ichigo, most were anger, but some small part of her was sad that it came to this. Ichigo had been her best friend for a long time. She had loved him, not in the way that he wanted, and that was part of why this hurt so badly. Thinking about the past, she wondered why it had to play out like this.

If she really thought about it, it didn't make any sense. She had once loved Ichigo with all of her heart. She would've done anything for him, would've chosen him over anyone else in the world. Yet as soon as Ulquiorra came into her life, everything changed. She had only known him for a small amount of time, so why had she fallen so hard? There was no reason why she should feel like this, especially considering everything he's done in his past. She should've run screaming, that would be the rational response. But as she watched him moving around the living room, she knew she could never do that. She loved him with every fiber of her being. She had thought that she loved Ichigo back then, but those feelings could never be compared to this. She used to wonder what would've happened if she had never fallen in love with Ulquiorra. If she had just chosen to hate him, would it have been different? It was useless though, she had never hated him. The first time she met him, she already felt a weird sort of attraction to him. Ulquiorra chose that moment to turn and look at her. "I thought you were going to your room," Orihime blushed at being caught staring, "or did you need something from me?" Originally, she had just been staring at him, but now she realized she actually did need to tell him something. "Um, I don't know how to say this. But no matter what you hear at night, don't come into my room. If you hear screams, just leave it alone," he looked confused so she continued, "I, um, have nightmares. Just ignore it, I can handle them myself. I always have." Not waiting for him to respond, she turned and started towards her room.

She felt so dumb. She didn't want him to hear how bad her nightmares were. Then he would want to know what they were about, she didn't want to tell him that they were about him. That would open the door to a million questions that she didn't want to answer. 'I should've made him leave. I should've never allowed him to-" Her thoughts cut off when she reached the entrance to her bedroom. She couldn't bring herself to enter the room. Her eyes were drawn to the red spot on her carpet, and she was ambushed by the memory of what happened to her. She knew it wasn't real, that she was safe now, but as she remembered Ichigo standing over her, her body went numb. Her limbs felt heavy and unnatural. As she started hyperventilating, her body started shaking. Her mouth opened to scream, but only ragged breaths came out. 'It's not real, it's not real, it's not real,' she tried to assure herself. No matter how much she repeated it though, her panic never decreased. She was almost positive that she was going to die from the panic coursing through her until beautiful, emerald eyes filled her vision.

At the sight of Ulquiorra, her panic subsided and she was able to breathe again. His eyes were full of questions, none of which Orihime wanted to give the answer to. He seemed to sense that she didn't want to talk about it because he didn't ask any questions. He simply just watched her to make sure she was okay. They both just stared at each other, waiting for the other to speak. He was the one that finally broke the silence, "Are you alright?" She was glad that he didn't ask what happened. "I'm fine. Thank you." It was then that she noticed how close they were. If she moved forward just a little, their noses would touch. His closeness should have made her panic, it has before, but not this time. Instead of being afraid of his proximity, she welcomed it. She wished that he would close the small distance between them, but knew that it would probably be a bad idea. Just because she could handle him being close, doesn't mean that she could handle him touching her, even if that was what she wanted most. Ulquiorra started to move away from her and she had to work to keep her arm from reaching out to him. It would only hurt them both more if she tried to keep him here.

Ulquiorra pushed her into her room and wished her goodnight again. As she watched him walk away, she tried to keep the thoughts of their future out of her mind. There was no point in imagining a future that would never happen. No matter how much she wanted him, it would never work out. Ichigo was going to kill her. Even if he didn't kill her, he would leave her with some serious emotional problems. She would probably never be able to stand a man touching her. What kind of couple would they be if she couldn't stand his touch? He deserved so much better than her. He deserved someone that wasn't broken, someone that could show their love through physical contact. She knew that she needed to let him go and the realization brought tears to her eyes.

Blinking away the tears, Orihime started to get ready for bed. As she opened her closet, she knew that she had underestimated how hard this would be. She could barely reach any of her clothes and putting them on with only one good arm was difficult. She felt like a toddler and was frustrated that she couldn't do this simple task. She had always been a person capable of taking care of herself and now she could barely even dress herself. She was finally able to dress herself, but was left breathless and exhausted. Wheeling herself to the bed, she tried to climb in but was yet again surprised by how hard it was. She couldn't use her legs to climb up there, as one of them were broken. It would have been easier if Ichigo had chosen to break both of her arms or legs, instead of breaking one of each. After many failed attempts, she was finally able to scramble her way into bed. As she lay there, a wave of self-pity washed over her. Usually she would try to push the sadness away, but tonight, just for one night, she let her feelings take her over. Tears ran down her face and sobs wracked her chest. Tomorrow, she would be strong, but tonight she just wanted a chance to be weak.

Ichigo was ecstatic. He was sitting on the roof of a building right across the street from Orihime's building. Far enough that Ulquiorra couldn't sense his presence, but close enough that he could still watch what was going on in the apartment. While Orihime had been in the hospital, he had installed cameras in all the rooms. They probably didn't even consider that he would make a move like that. They probably thought that he would just come straight for Orihime's life, but that wasn't the case. What would be the fun in just killing her? He wanted to watch as she unraveled from the knowledge that she was going to die. He wanted to see the look on her face as she realized there was no way out. He was surprised when she tried to kill herself before, he hadn't thought she had it in her, but now he was more prepared. The second she made a move to end her own life, he would be there to stop it. She didn't get to take the easy way out, not after everything he had gone through. He had loved her for years, and she just abandoned him. As if that wasn't already bad enough, she left him for that _monster._ He just couldn't understand how she could even stand to look at Ulquiorra after what he did. Ulquiorra hasn't done anything to deserve Orihime's love, but Ichigo had. He stood by her as she was recovering from losing Ulquiorra. He had patiently awaited the moment when she would finally move on. He loved her enough to hold her as she cried over someone else, loved her enough to forgive her. If she begged and apologized to him now, he would forgive her and take her back. He didn't really want to kill her. He hoped that she would crack and beg before that.

He watched as the light in Orihime's room turned off. His cameras had been recording since they got home. Since Orihime was in bed, it would probably be a good time to watch them considering that nothing else would be happening tonight. Opening his laptop, he wondered when Ulquiorra had left. He hadn't really been watching the entrance so he probably missed it. He plugged in his headphones and turned on the recording. He watched as they got home and Orihime told Ulquiorra that he should go home. He almost fell over when he heard Ulquiorra say that he was going to start staying there. Orihime didn't even refuse him! She had _never_ let Ichigo stay there, no matter how much he asked. It wasn't fair that Ulquiorra got to stay there, but at least he would stay on the couch. Unpausing the video, he watched Orihime make her way to her room and stop right outside the door. Happiness filled him when she couldn't enter the room. She was remembering what had happened to her, what _he_ had done to her. A grin spread across his face at the sight of her shaking with fear, unable to breathe. This was exactly what he had been hoping to see. He wanted to watch her suffer, and suffering she was. But as he watched Ulquiorra come to her, he felt the happiness leave and anger take its place.

He hated how close Ulquiorra was to Orihime. She was _his,_ not Ulquiorra's! What gave him the right to be so close to her? He was even able to stop her panic attack, increasing Ichigo's anger. The intensity of his anger only grew as he watched Orihime stare at Ulquiorra. Her desire was written all over her face, it pissed him off. He knew exactly what she wanted, and Ulquiorra wanted the same exact thing. Ichigo decided that even if she begged for him to take her back, he wouldn't do it. Not after what he just watched. In fact, he would kill Ulquiorra right in front of her. Or maybe he would make her do it herself. If she could kill him, he would forgive her. If not, then they would both die. They could be together, but only in death. Returning his attention to the recording, he watched as Orihime cried herself to sleep. With every tear she shed, his pride grew.


	17. Chapter 17-Nightmares

**I'm sorry this chapter's kinda short. After this, things are going to start getting real so I kept it short. Thanks to everyone who's favorited/followed my story. I also really appreciate the reviews. I hope you guys enjoy the story.**

Unable to sleep, Ulquiorra lay on the couch, staring at the ceiling. Sleep wasn't even a possibility for him right now. His thoughts kept drifting to Orihime, who was sleeping just a few rooms away from him. If he closed his eyes he could still see her, inches away from himself. She was right in front of him and he couldn't do anything. He wanted so badly to close the distance between them, taste her lips, and show her how much she meant to him. He couldn't do that though, it would only hurt her. She hadn't seemed fazed by how close they were, but he didn't want to push his luck.

'Maybe staying with her wasn't a good idea. I'm supposed to keep her safe, but can I protect her from myself?' Ulquiorra quickly shoved the thought away. Of course he could control himself, it was just getting increasingly difficult to do so. He had never wanted anyone as much as he wanted Orihime, not even before he became a Hollow. When he was alive, he always felt empty and he felt even more so when he died. When Orihime showed up, it was like a bright light appeared in his pitch black world. In the beginning he had rejected her light, he even called her trash. But over time, he realized that it was impossible for him to reject her anymore. He was drawn to her from the beginning. It didn't really have anything to do with the fact that she was beautiful or that she was an amazing person. Those things are just a bonus. He knew that even if she was hideous and killed dogs for fun he would still love her. Something in her called to him, he just didn't know what. He wondered if she felt the same thing about him. Did she ever lay there and just think about why she loved him? He wasn't a good person, so it couldn't be that. He really didn't see himself as attractive either. As far as he could see, there was no reason for Orihime to love him, yet he knew that she did. She may try to deny it, but she loved him and he knew it.

He was just getting ready to fall asleep when the screaming started. Orihime had told him that she had nightmares and not to worry about it. What kind of nightmares could make someone this scared? For a while he just laid there, listening to Orihime scream in the other room. Sometimes it would die down and he would think that it was over, but then she would start screaming again. His heart broke every time she screamed. She must be so afraid and he can't even do anything for her. He tried so hard to ignore it. He tried to fall asleep, but when he heard her scream his name he had to go to her. Jumping off the bed, he rushed to her room.

She knew that she was dreaming. She had had this dream every night for five years, so she knew it was fake, but it never ceased to break her. She watched as Ulquiorra reached out to her. She reached out to touch him, but he was already gone. She sat there, crying his name over and over again. The wind blew, taking his ashes with it. Orihime stood to chase after them. If she could just get his ashes, she may be able to heal him. She wouldn't let him leave her like this. She would change her own story. She would heal him, and they would be happy. But as she ran, she never got any closer. She tripped over a hole in the ground and everything went black.

When she opened her eyes again, she was in her apartment. For a moment she thought she had woken up, but then she took in her surroundings. In front of her was a fuming Ichigo. She instantly knew what this was. This was the day it all started, the day Ulquiorra remembered her. She knew how this went down and she didn't want to go through it again. She felt the sting of Ichigo's hand against her face and knew that she had been slapped. It would leave a bruise in the morning. He forced his tongue in her mouth and she bit down on it. This is the part where she runs to the bathroom, but why wasn't she running? This wasn't how it happened. She was supposed to run to the bathroom, but she wasn't running. It was then that she realized that Ichigo grabbed ahold of her. She was aware that she was dreaming, but this had never happened before, so it felt so real to her. Ichigo shoved her to the ground and climbed on top of her. Se knew what was going to happen, and she was terrified. During her time with Ichigo, this was her biggest fear, that he would take her by force. He had gotten close sometimes, but he had always stopped. She didn't think Dream-Ichigo was going to stop and it made her blood freeze in her veins. He reached for the buttons on her shirt, she screamed and kicked, but it did little good. He ripped her shirt open, throwing the buttons all over the place. Placing kisses along her stomach, he moved to take off her pants, she tried to move away, but he had her pinned under his knees. He pulled her pants off and she started to cry. As she heard the sound of his zipper, she yelled the name of the only person she trusted to save her, "Ulquiorra!"

Orihime opened her eyes to endless emerald. It took her a moment to realize that it was Ulquiorra staring down at her. He reached for her, slowly as not to scare her, and wiped the tears from her face. "Are you okay," he asked. "I told you to ignore my screams," she said angrily. "I know. But I heard you yell my name and I just couldn't ignore it anymore. I tried, I really did." She tried to be mad the he disobeyed her, but she was just grateful that he had saved her from that terrible dream.

She could still feel Ichigo's hands on her, but they were being replaced by the feeling of Ulquiorra's hand on her. Wait, Ulquiorra's hands? She couldn't believe it, he was touching her and she was fine! She didn't feel any sort of anxiety. She wondered why. Thinking back on the dream, she realized that she had trusted Ulquiorra to save her and he did. She had accepted that he would never hurt her and it had helped her overcome her anxiety towards him. Deep down, she was afraid that he would leave her to be hurt again, but he didn't. Standing up, Ulquiorra turned to leave, but was stopped by Orihime's hand on his arm. He looked at her questioningly. She looked at him, her eyes pleading. "Don't leave. Stay with me." He was surprised. She was actually touching him. He sat down beside the bed, "Okay. I'll stay here." Orihime looked at him and shook her head. "Not there," she patted the spot on the bed beside her, "here." Ulquiorra's eyes widened in surprise. She wanted him to sleep with her? He couldn't even work up the willpower to tell her no. He crawled into bed beside her. She laid her head on his chest and curled into his side. He pulled the blanket up and wrapped his arms around her. A few minutes later, they were both sound asleep.


	18. Chapter 18-Good Morning

Orihime opened her eyes to the moonlight streaming in through the window. She groaned, cursing herself. She had always an early riser, so waking up before the sun rose wasn't an odd thing for her. This one time though, as she listened to Ulquiorra's quiet breathing, she wished that she could just sleep a little longer. If she could just curl up in his arms and let sleep take her over, she would be able to ignore everything else in the world. As she watched him, she wished she could freeze this moment and live in it forever. She had never seen him like this before. During her time in captivity, he had always looked like he was in pain. Now he looked so peaceful and she couldn't resist the urge she had to touch him. Trying to be as quiet as possible, she reached out and touched his cheek. Feeling his skin under her fingers, she felt a sense of tranquility wash over her. When had she become so reliant on him? Before him, it had felt like she was missing a giant part of herself. Back then, she was positive that Ichigo could help her fill that hole. Then she saw him for the first time and everything changed.

From the first time she saw him, she felt strange about him. At first she chalked it up to fear, but when she was taken to Hueco Mundo it became clear that it was more than that. When Ulquiorra touched her, it was like everything snapped into place and the giant hole in her heart was being filled. Everytime he left she felt it again, but it was starting to get better. Every time he touched her, the hole healed a little bit each time. She had been frightened at first, but eventually accepted her own feelings. She loved him and was convinced that he would save her. But then the fight happened. As she watched him turn to ashes, she felt the hole open back up. This time, though, it was much worse. It was like a black hole had opened inside of her, sucking everything into it. She had learned to live with the soul-sucking sadness, but now she just wanted it to be gone and he was the only one who could do that for her.

All she wanted to do was lay there and watch him, but she knew she couldn't do that. She had to get up now or she would never be able to let him go. It was so unfair. For years all she wanted was to have him here, and now she needed him to leave. She knew that Ichigo was going to kill her, but Ulquiorra still had a chance. As long as he was with her, he would never be safe. Letting him go would hurt, but at least he would be alive. Scooting away from him, she lifted her hand from his cheek. Before she could pull it back though, he grabbed a hold of it. With a flick of his wrist, he drew her to him and wrapped his arms around her. Orihime held her breath, waiting for him to speak, but only heard his soft snores. Realizing that he was still asleep, she had to stifle her laughter. It was like his subconscious knew what her leaving meant. Sighing, she curled into his side. She knew there would be consequences for not letting him go, but she just didn't care anymore.

Ichigo watched as Orihime fell back asleep. Unable to control his anger, he punched his laptop. The force of the punch sent it flying off of the roof he was on. Leaning over the edge, he watched as it fell through the air. It made a sickening crunch as it hit the ground, pieces strewn all over the sidewalk. Sighing, he pulled out one of the may extra laptops he had brought for this stake-out. He had anticipated that he would get angry, he just didn't think that it would happen so often. He hadn't expected Orihime to let things get this far. He had always seen her as sort of a tease. On the outside, she looked like the kind of girl that would do anything you asked. In real life though, she was nothing like that. She would barely even let people near her, let alone in the same bed.

As he watched them sleep, he felt his anger rise. She gave Ulquiorra special treatment and it baffled Ichigo. She barely even knew the guy. The only time they had spent together before this was all because Ulquiorra kidnapped her. Any sane person would get as far away as possible, but nope. Orihime just lets the bad guy in her bed. What a whore. She had never been like this with Ichigo, and it made him angry. If she had shown him just a sliver of what she showed Ulquiorra, they would have never ended up like this.

This was all Ulquiorra's fault. It was his fault that Orihime moved on from Ichigo, his fault that she suffered for years, and it was his fault that Orihime would never be with Ichigo. If he had never existed, life would have been perfect. Orihime would still love him and it would be him in her bed, not Ulquiorra. They would have gotten married and had children. Now, he was forced to watch from the outside as she's happy with someone else. Ichigo had tried to let her go, he really did. He had kept his feelings to himself for years, but he just couldn't do it anymore. He had to have her, no matter what. Even if she didn't love him now, he figured that she could grow to love him. Even if he had to force her to be with him for years, eventually she would have to love him. At least that was what he had thought before, now he wasn't so sure. With Ulquiorra back in the picture, his vision seemed impossible. Orihime would never love him while Ulquiorra was still alive. But what if he wasn't? What if Ulquiorra died, and stayed dead? He could kill ulquiorra first, then make Orihime his own.

Ichigo knew it would probably never work. If he killed Ulquiorra, Orihime would never forgive him. She would never love him, no matter how long they were together. But maybe she didn't have to love him. If he could just have her around, that would be alright. If he could just have her, he knew everything would be okay. He could lock her somewhere where no one could take her and keep her there forever. If she still refused him, he would kill her.

When Ulquiorra woke, the first thing he noticed was that Orihime was curled into his arms. Her beautiful, orange hair was tousled and tickled his nose when she inhaled. He chuckled at the sight of her sleeping face. She had a little drool trickling from her mouth, which was wide open. She was the most beautiful woman in the world to him, with or without the drool. Getting up without waking her would be almost impossible so instead he opted to stay where he was.

He looked at the clock, surprised when he saw that it was almost two o'clock in the afternoon. Usually he was an early riser, but he had underestimated how tired he actually was. While Orihime was in the hospital, he barely got any sleep. He had been afraid to take his eyes off of her for a second, so sleep wasn't really an option at that point. The sound of rustling sheets brought him out of his thoughts. Orihime's eyes opened and met his. "Good morning," he said, smiling at her. At his greeting, a grin spread across her face. She reached out to touch his cheek. Stiffening, he tried to stay as still as possible so as not to scare he away. Almost as if she could read his mind, she said, "You can relax, Ulquiorra. I'm not afraid of you." To prove her point, she brought her other hand to his cheek and slid closer to him. Ulquiorra tried to relax, but it was hard with her this close. Being this close to her brought out feelings that he didn't know how to deal with. He wanted to pull her closer and push her away at the same time. Every cell in his body was screaming at him to bring her closer, but he knew he couldn't. Orihime was in a fragile state right now. Even if she could stand to touch him, anything else beyond that was uncharted territory. Trying to push her boundaries could result in her not even being able to be near him again. He had finally gotten past that and did not want to go back to it. He had to be patient and wait until Orihime was ready.

When he looked back down at her, she was already watching him. When their eyes met, she didn't look away like she usually did. They laid like that for a while, just staring at each other. Eventually, Orihime sighed and broke the silence. "I really need to wash up. I already know that I'm going to have a panic attack when I go into the bathroom. After all, look how I reacted to the bedroom," she looked at him, her eyes pleading, "Would you go with me?" Nodding, he helped her sit up. Once she was situated in her chair, he moved her to the closet to get some clean clothes. She was having some trouble getting the clothes off the hangers, but refused his help when he offered it. She was independent and wanted to do this own her own. It took a little while, but she finally got the clothes out of the closet. Making their way to the bathroom, neither of them said anything. When they reached the bathroom door, she reached up and grabbed his hand.

Opening the door, he slowly pushed her through. He was trying to give her time to take in the surroundings and know that she was safe. He watched as her chest rose and fell. She was trying to keep calm by taking deep breaths. Watching her reaction, he was glad that he had cleaned the bathroom last night. If she had come in here before that, she would have had a panic attack no matter what. The floor had been coated in her blood. Blood had stuck to the bathtub like grime. There was still a red tint to the tub but it was better than it was before. It looked like nothing happened in here now, but he knew that that didn't matter. She would always remember what happened to her. Everytime she came in here, it would haunt her. He hoped that with time it would get better.

He left the room so she could clean herself. She couldn't actually get in the shower because of her casts, but she could use a rag to at least wash up a little bit. After a while, she called him back in. "Could you help me wash my hair? I can't do it with this cast on my arm." He lifted her out of the chair and sat her beside the tub. He leaned her back over the tub and her breathing increased. He tried to be gentle so that she wouldn't panic. He put the soap in her hair and worked it through the orange locks. Eventually, she started to relax. When he was done, he helped her dry her hair off. He hadn't really thought about how much work went into a girl getting ready, now he had a whole new respect for it. As soon as they left the bathroom, all the tension left her shoulders.

The rest of the day flew by in a blur. Orihime read most of the day. He decided to spend the day watching TV. When he made dinner, she was surprised that he could actually cook. When it was time for bed, he tried to go to sleep on the couch, but Orihime automatically shot down that idea. So for the second night in a row, they curled up together and slept.


	19. Chapter 19-Plaster

**A/N: I'm sorry for the delay in uploading, guys. I've had a lot of stuff going on and just couldn't find anyway to write this. But now I'm back into it and though it may take a little while for me to upload, I am still keeping this story going. Thank you everyone for staying with me through this whole story.**

As the time passed, Orihime's anxiety grew. Peering into the night, she searched for any sign of movement. Though there had been no sign of Ichigo, she knew he had to be out there somewhere. He was just waiting for her to let her guard down. The second she did, he would pounce on her.

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Ulquiorra watching her. She realized she was more than a little paranoid, but considering the situation it was understandable, right? Tired of feeling his eyes on her, she turned to him, "If you have something to say to me, just say it. If not, then quit staring at me." Taken back by the anger in her voice, it took him a moment to reply. "I don't understand why you are angry at me. In response to your statement, I don't have anything in particular to say I just like looking at you more than anything else in this room. Is that wrong? Now you should get ready or we will be late for your appointment." Blushing, Orihime left the room.

Once she was safely in her own room, Orihime let herself think about Ulquiorra's words, ' _He always says whatever he wants, whether it will embarrass me or not.'_ She just couldn't understand how he could express his feelings so boldly! She loved him dearly, yet had only been able to tell him so twice. Neither of those were during the time they had been living together. Groaning, she wheeled herself over to her closet to get her clothes. She now had no problems with getting them off the hangers. Thinking back to how much trouble she had before, she almost had to laugh at herself. But today that would all change. Today was the day that she finally got to have her casts removed.

Though she probably should have been full of excitement, the only feeling that Orihime could manage to muster up was dread. If she had her casts removed, would Ulquiorra leave? Now that he had no reason to stay around and take care of her, would he just walk away? She should be happy that he would leave, at least it keep him safe from suffering the same fate as her. She knew she should be happy, but she just couldn't. Just the thought of him walking out was enough to make her crazy. Over the past few weeks she had allowed to herself to become reliant on him and now she was going to suffer the consequences of decisions.

Looking at herself in the mirror, her eyes wandered to the plaster encasing her arm. She hated these things. Everytime she saw them, she was reminded of how she got them and the man who did it all: Ichigo. Orihime desperately hoped that Ichigo had decided to move on and let her live her life. Her brain told her that it was useless to have those types of dreams, and it was right, but her heart just couldn't stand the thought of living in fear everyday, so it pushed it away.

But, getting her casts removed had brought up a whole new swell of worries. If she wasn't injured, would Ichigo come for her? Had he just been biding his time so that she could heal and he could hurt her all over again? Would he be waiting for her? Fear raged within her at the thought of coming home to see him. She could just imagine it. She would walk in the door and he would be sitting in her living room, smiling. He would stand up and tell her how much he missed her while she was gone, like they were still a couple. He would walk over, hug her, and when she didn't hug bag he would get angry. His hand would raise and- she was suddenly brought out of her nightmare by a knock on the door. "Orihime, are you ready? We need to get going." Looking around, she remembered where she was. She worked on getting her breathing under control, then went to open the door for Ulquiorra.

Plastering a smile on her face, she tried to feign excitement. But one look at Ulquiorra's face showed that he didn't believe her at all. He positioned himself behind her wheelchair, and pushed her out of the apartment. Once they were in the elevator, he finally spoke to her. "I don't know why you try to hide your distress from me, Orihime. I can clearly see that you are upset. About what, I don't know and I won't press you to tell me. Just don't try to hide it from me anymore." Looking up, she met his beautiful eyes. She couldn't bring herself to tell him just yet, so all she could do was nod her head. He seemed to understand because he dropped the subject. Just then, the doors slid open, revealing the bland lobby of her building.

Ulquiorra started pushing again and Orihime let her mind wander. She rarely intentionally let her mind wander as it tended to go to dark places that she didn't want to revisit, but this was one of the rare times that her mind took her to a happier place. She let herself revisit the dream that she had while she was in the hospital. The feel of Ulquiorra's hand in hers, the surprisingly gentle way he treated her. The way he looked at their wedding, standing at the end of the aisle in his black tuxedo. The color went amazing with his pale skin and green eyes. She let herself imagine how the wedding would have gone. Ulquiorra would have said his vows straightforwardly, making her cry. They would both say "I do." and Ulquiorra would lean in to kiss her. But before he could reach her, she was brought out of her daydream by a tap on her shoulder. Ulquiorra, the real one, was tapping her shoulder to get her to come back to earth. Looking around, she realized that they were at the doctor's office.

She told the receptionist her name and they didn't even have to wait before a nurse came and took them into the back room. After looking over her chart, the nurse said that Orihime had to have x-rays done. Her face must've showed how distraught she was at the thought of being separated from Ulquiorra because he quickly asked if he could come along. The nurse thought about it for a second, but said that she saw no reason why not, but he couldn't come in the room. Orihime was then wheeled into a room with a machine she had seen all too often. The nurse handed her off to the technician. She laid her on the table, covered her with the pad that would stop the radiation from hurting her, and moved behind the wall to the computer. Soon, Orihime could hear the sound of the machine running. Then the tech would come back out and move her leg and arm to a different position. They repeated that string of activities until she was finally declared finished.

The nurse returned, loaded her back into her chair and wheeled her out of the room, where she was brought back to Ulquiorra. The nurse took her back to her room, Ulquiorra walking beside them, and then left them with the words that the doctor would be in soon. Orihime had prepared herself for a long wait, but was surprised when the doctor came in only a few minutes later. He smiled when he saw her, "You are looking much better than the last time I saw you, Orihime. Good news though. Your bones seem to be completely healed. We can take those casts off of you. Now you may not be up to full strength yet, so you may need to use a crutch to get around. But if you feel that you don't need it, then you don't have use it." He made his way over to a cabinet, opened it and rummaged around inside for a few seconds. When he made his way back over to them he had something that looked like a saw in his hands. He plugged the contraption in, and moved it to hover over the cast on her arm. "I promise this will not hurt." With that, he started cutting her cast off. It was loud and little bit of plaster were flying around. Orihime found herself watching the little bits as they flew around the air. Pretty soon her arm was freed and he moved on to the cast on her leg. Her leg cast took a little bit longer since it was larger. Eventually, it too was freed.

The doctor put his saw away and looked at her, "It's a shame I won't be able to see you again after this but I'm glad that you are better. Stay out of trouble, young lady." He left the room and Orihime finally got a look at her limbs. She instantly regretted looking at them. Both her arm and leg were yellow, smaller than the others, and smelled horrible. Not to mention that her leg hair had grown exponentially while in the cast. Looking at Ulquiorra, she found him staring at her and she groaned. Why did he have to see how gross she was? She should've just came alone.

Ulquiorra didn't understand why she was so distressed, but he tried to comfort her. "I do not care what your arm and leg look like, woman. As you seem to have forgotten, I found you covered in blood and I still stuck around. Not to mention that I much prefer this look to the look of you dying in my arms. Now stop worrying about such trivial things and let's go home." He stood up and held his hand out to her. Orihime took his hand and let him pull her up off of the examination table. She had been so worried that he would leave after she was freed of her casts, but now it just seemed silly. Of course he would stay with her. He loved her. And with that realization, Orihime let Ulquiorra lead her home, happier than she had been in a long time.


	20. Chapter 20-I Love You

Orihime forgot what it felt like to walk. After being in a wheelchair for so long, she forgot what it was like to stand on your own two feet. She had imagined this moment a million times, the moment she could finally stand beside Ulquiorra. She just hadn't imagined how much her leg would hurt. That was normal, of course. She hadn't used the muscles in so long that it was a strain just to hold her own weight up.

As soon as they stepped out of the doctor's office, Orihime sighed at the feeling of the sun on her limbs. Stopping, she put her arm further out into the sunlight, watching as the rays danced across her yellowed skin. She would have stood there all day, content with feeling the sun's rays, but then her stomach chose that moment to break the spell she was under by growling loudly.

Ulquiorra raised his eyebrows at her, "As much as I enjoy watching you play with the sunlight, I believe it is time that you get home. It is time for you to eat." He took her hand, entwining their fingers, and started leading the way home.

The walk home was quiet, so Orihime had plenty of time to think about what would happen now. Would Ulquiorra leave now that she was out of her casts? After all, he had been staying to ensure that she was taken care of. Now that she could take care of herself, would he leave her? Would he go back to how things were before, acting like they barely knew each other? She couldn't blame him, she had asked for it. If he left, she wouldn't fight him. It would be better for him to leave, she knew that. But if she knew that it would be safer, then why did it hurt so much? Just the idea of him leaving left her breathless.

She had been so deep into her own thoughts that she didn't even notice when they had arrived home. As she watched him unlock the door to her apartment, she had to fight to keep the tears back. She wouldn't allow herself to cry, it would just complicate the situation. He would feel compelled to stay if she started the waterworks. That wasn't what she wanted, she wanted him to be here of his own choice. Not because he thought she was some helpless child who couldn't survive on her own.

Ulquiorra opened the door and stood aside for her to go first. Entering the apartment, Orihime was determined to hide her pain from him. She turned around, prepared to tell him that it was okay if he left, just to find him moving to the kitchen. "What are you doing?" Orihime asked, shock causing her voice to rise.

Ulquiorra looked at her, his own face showing his confusion, "I'm making dinner. I thought you were hungry?" Relief flooded Orihime. He wasn't leaving yet. He might leave after dinner, but she could deal with that when it happened. For now, she was just going to enjoy her time together. There was something she needed to attend to before all of that, though. Moving toward the bathroom, she called out "I'm going to take a shower! My arms and legs look ridiculous. I'll be out before dinner is done. If I'm not, just come and get me." She heard him mumble a quiet, "Okay," before he started back to making dinner.

Turning on the shower, Orihime stared at the bathtub. It felt like what had happened to her was so long ago. Before she couldn't even come in here without going into a panic attack. Now she felt like that all happened to someone else. Maybe she could out it all behind her, stop thinking about what Ichigo will do to her and start thinking about a future with Ulquiorra. Slapping herself on both cheeks, she stopped the thought in it's tracks.

" _I can't start thinking like that. I already know there's no future for me. Ichigo will kill me. But Ulquiorra still has a chance. I need to let him go,"_ Orihime thought.

Stepping into the shower, she let the warm water work out the knots in her body. Her legs were super sore from walking home. She welcomed the pain, though. It was a sign that she was still alive. When she had tried to take her life she had seen no other way out, but now she was glad that the attempt had failed. She would've missed all this time with Ulquiorra.

Looking down at her newly freed leg, she almost cringed at the sight. Her leg hair had grown in like a jungle. It would take forever to shave it all off, but she'd be damned if she left it looking that way. Grabbing her razor, she went to work. Just one part of her leg took five minutes to get through. Luckily, she had just shaved her other leg, so she didn't have to worry about doing that too. She didn't need to hurry though, or else all the hot water would run out. She hated being in a cold shower.

After twenty minutes of hard effort, she had finally freed her leg from the jungle of hair. She finished just in the nick of time, the water was just starting to get cold. Stepping out of the shower, she wrapped herself in a plush, white towel. She used a smaller towel to rub the ends of her hair. She didn't like to blow dry her hair, she had heard it was bad for your hair, so she let it air dry most nights. Looking around, she realized that, in her rush to get in the shower, she had forgotten to grab clothes. She would just have to move really fast to prevent Ulquiorra from seeing her. Turning towards the door, she was prepared to make a run for it. Opening the door, she bolted through it- and ran face first into Ulquiorra's chest.

Jarred from the force of the impact, Orihime started to fall backwards. Then Ulquiorra's arms were holding her up. Being held there in his arms, she looked up and was met with the sight of his beautiful green eyes. His face was so close to hers. Every breath he exhaled, she inhaled. Her eyes lowered to his lips. Those beautiful, pale lips. She wondered if they would be soft against her own. One thought consumed her mind, repeating in a loop through her brain, " _Kiss me, Kiss me."_

As if he had read her mind, he brought his lips to hers. The kiss started out gentle, but soon changed. When their lips touched, it was like a dam broke between them, letting out all the feelings they had been keeping pent up. Orihime's arms wrapped around his neck, completely oblivious of the towel that had fallen to the floor. Ulquiorra's hands grabbed her waist, not even registering the fact that she was naked in his arms.

Needing air, Orihime broke the kiss. Panting, she stared into his eyes. His cheeks had a slight pink tint to them. She had never seen him with color in his face, it was beautiful. She reached her hand up to cup his cheek. Then hesitantly move her lips closer to his. Ulquiorra closed the space between them in a second. When he started kissing her again, Orihime felt her stomach tighten. Ulquiorra grabbed her legs, lifting her so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Once they were wrapped, he started walking her to the bedroom, never pulling their lps apart.

He pressed her against the wall by the door to her room, kissing her deeply. She felt his tongue trace the outline of her bottom lip, the feeling shot flames through her veins. It made her hot in places that she thought were long dead. She touched her own tongue to his, and was rewarded with a low moan from him. The sound sent chills through her. She felt his weight pull back from her and cried out from the loss of him. Grabbing her waist, he pulled her closer to him as they moved into the bedroom.

Laying her down on the bed, he got his first look at her. Her face was flushed, her lips swollen from their frenzied kisses. He was confused. He had never desired a female in this way. He had never thought about sex before this. But looking at Orihime lying below him, naked and still so beautiful, he couldn't believe she was real. How could something so perfect exist in this world?

Lowering his face down to hers, he brushed his lips against hers. She cried out when he moved away from her lips, but the cry was soon replaced with moans as her took one of her nipples into his mouth. Suckling on the little bud, he used his hand to stimulate the other one. Orihime was rocking her hips, desperate to find anything to lighten the tension she was feeling. She needed him. Now. She had no idea where the feelings came from, but she couldn't fight them. She wasn't even afraid of the pain that came with losing your virginity, she just wanted Ulquiorra inside her.

She twisted her fingers into his hair, pulling lightly to get him to look at her. "No more," She panted, "I need you."

Hearing Orihime admit her need for him drove him over the edge. He had never had sex before but that didn't matter to him right now. He just needed her. Standing up, He removed his shirt. Orihime's breath caught at the sight of him without a shirt on. He was so beautiful. His skin was pale and looked like it was chiseled out of marble. She had to fight the urge to touch him, afraid it would scare him away. She watched as he pulled off his jeans, leaving him in only his green boxers. She should have found it funny that his boxers matched his eyes, that was such an Ulquiorra thing to do. But right now, she just found it extremely hot.

As Ulquiorra pulled off his boxers, Orihime finally got her first look at his erection. She felt like her eyes would pop out of their sockets. " _It's freaking huge,"_ She thought, " _How is that supposed to fit inside me? There's no way it's gonna work. It's gonna tear me apart!_ " Taking deep breaths to steady herself, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to her, capturing his lips again.

Never breaking from the kiss, Ulquiorra positioned himself in between her legs. She could feel his erection pushing at her entrance. The friction felt amazing and she found herself rocking her hips to feel even more of him. Pulling away from the kiss, Ulquiorra looked at her. "Don't move. THis is going to hurt, just let your body get used to it." Before she could even nod, he was inside her.

The pain was unbearable. As soon as he broke through her hymen, a scream tore itself from her throat and tears ran down her face. She wanted to move, to get him out of her, but he had said to remain still and she trusted his words. Ulquiorra leaned down and kissed the tears from her cheeks. "I'm going to start moving now, love. Relax and it won't hurt as much." Orihime closed her eyes and took deep breaths to relax. Then she felt him move for the first time.

It was painful, but not as much as it had originally been. When he thrust back into her, slowly as to not hurt her, she felt only pleasure as a moan escaped her. As his thrusts increased in tempo, Orihime's moans became louder. Tangling her fingers in his hair, she pulled him down into a kiss. Ulquiorra's hands trailed down, grabbing her ass and moving it so he was in a better position. Feeling his hands on her, Orihime's stomach started to tighten. Rocking her hips against him, her moans came faster and louder.

When Orihime started moving her hips, Ulquiorra knew it was only a matter of time before he reached his limit. He just hoped that she reached her climax first. Trying to push her over the edge, he started pounding into her harder than before. He had been afraid of hurting her, but as her moans grew louder, he could tell this was the correct choice. Unfortunately, the change in force was also having an effect on him. He had to get Orihime finished first, only then would he allow himself release. He didn't have to wait long though. A moment later, Orihime screamed and her walls clamped down around him. The feeling caused him to hit his climax, his own moans mingling with hers.

He crashed down beside her and pulled her to his chest. Kissing her forehead, he heard her mumbling something. "What was that?" He asked, pulling her away to hear her more clearly. "I was wondering if you were going to leave," Orihime said, averting her eyes from his. Ulquiorra laughed, surprising her. "Why on Earth would I leave?" Orihime was speechless for a moment and he waited patiently for her to find the words that she wanted to say.

"But.. Well.. I figured since I was out of my casts, you wouldn't stick around." She said shyly. Ulquiorra grabbed her face, forcing her to look at him. "You listen to me now, Orihime. I love you. It doesn't matter whether you are in casts or not. I have no plans on leaving you. Not until you send me away. Maybe not even then."

Orihime smiled at him, "Well you won't have to worry about that. There's no way I could survive without you. I love you too much." Ulquiorra froze at her words, causing Orihime to panic. She looked up at him, ready to ask what was wrong, when he spoke, "You love me?" She nodded her head, "Of course I love you. Why would think otherwise?" Then she realized why. She had told him that she didn't want him. That she didn't love him. She had pushed him away and he had actually believed her words so much that even all they had been through together hadn't made him question it.

Ulquiorra moved her face so she was looking at him. Smiling, he said, "You love me." Then he brought their lips together in a heart wrenchingly gentle kiss. She curled into his chest and fell asleep, wrapped up in his arms and his love.


	21. Chapter 21-Promises

While Orihime slept peacefully in her bed, surrounded by love, Ichigo was pacing the length of his room, plotting his next move. He had been waiting for her casts to be removed before making any moves towards her. Those casts were a constant reminder of what had happened to her, what _he_ had done to her. Now that they were gone, she would be feeling a sense of relief. That's exactly what Ichigo was hoping for. He wanted her to feel safe again, to feel like she was healed. When she built her hopes up and felt whole again, that's when he would make his move. This time, he would destroy her.

Sitting down at his desk, he opened the screen to his new laptop. Since his old laptop had "accidently fell off of his counter" he needed to get a new one. At least that's what he told his dad. What else could he have told him?

"Hey dad… I'm sorta stalking Orihime. Who I beat while we were dating… and also installed cameras in her house. And while watching those cameras, I saw her with another guy. I got pissed and threw my laptop off the roof, so can you buy me another one?"

Yeah, that would go down so well. Not. His dad would probably have him committed, or arrested, or both. He couldn't have that. Who would watch over Orihime while he was gone? No one. There was only him. No one loved her as much as he did.

Maybe his idea of love was a little different from everyone else's, but it's only because he cared so much about Orihime. They had been through alot together, it was only natural that they mean alot to each other. Apparently though, Orihime hadn't gotten the memo. It's not that she couldn't be with Ulquiorra….. She couldn't be with _anyone_ except Ichigo. If she would just come to him, he could put this whole thing behind them and they could live happily ever after.

But no. That bitch just had to keep defying him, had to keep going back to Ulquiorra. Ichigo didn't see what was so special about the guy. He was scrawny, stoic, and weak. He was weak enough to lose to Ichigo when they fought before, and it would turn out the same way now. Maybe if he could make Orihime see how weak Ulquiorra really was, she wouldn't want to be with him anymore….

No. It wasn't about getting her back anymore. Orihime was a bad influence. She only brought negativity to his life. He had to get rid of her, there was no other choice. He had given her time to heal, now it was time to make good on his promises.

Orihime woke to find herself alone in her bed. Raising her head from her pillows, she reached out for the clock on her nightstand and saw that it was after 11 in the morning. She normally didn't sleep in this late. Sitting up, he eyes wandered to the spot where Ulquiorra had slept. She listened for any sign of him in the apartment. Hearing movement in the kitchen, she assumed that was where he was.

Sliding to the edge of the bed, she felt soreness between her legs, reminding her of what happened last night. Blushing, she recalled how it felt to have Ulquiorra inside her. It had been painful at first, but it was amazing. Ulquiorra had been gentle and careful not to hurt her. She had never really thought about having sex before, never felt the need to. But Ulquiorra had changed all that. Now she struggled with the urge to call him back to her, to bring him back to bed. If she didn't get up now, she would never be able to.

Wrapping the sheet around herself, she headed towards the kitchen. She was self-conscious for a moment about walking around in only a sheet, but it passed as Ulquiorra turned to look at her. As their eyes met, Orihime saw no judgement in them, only love. Overcoming the last few steps between them, Orihime moved into Ulquiorra's waiting arms, laying her head on his chest.

Ulquiorra planted a kiss onto her hair, his breath moving the sunset-colored strands. Orihime tilted her head up and stood on her toes to press a kiss to her lips. Ulquiorra's lips spread into a smile under hers. As she pulled back, he pulled her back to his chest.

Orihime listened to the beating of his heart as he spoke to her, "Good morning, woman," Orihime's heart skipped at the sound of his name for her, "I was just going to start breakfast. Do you want anything in particular?"

She pulled back to look into his eyes, answering before she had a chance to stop the words, "I could think of a few things." Realizing what she had just implied, Orihime started to panic. Why had she said that? What if he didn't understand what she meant and just thought she was being weird? Even worse, what if he did understand, but rejected her.

She moved her eyes back up to his…. And instantly saw that he had understood. Ulquiorra's emerald eyes bore into her own, glazed over with lust. If she didn't stop this right now, they would end up having sex right here in the kitchen. She was suddenly hit with a realization. She _wanted_ it. She wanted him to take her, right here, right now.

Leaning into him, she let the sheet fall to the floor, revealing herself to him. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down, crushing their mouths together in a frenzied kiss. Ulquiorra's hands came to sit on the small of her back, but didn't stay for long, trailing down lower until they rested on her bottom. Feeling his hands on her, Orihime felt her arousal grow.

Orihime tentatively traced his bottom lip with her tongue, causing a soft groan from the raven haired man in front of her. The sound gave Orihime more confidence, allowing her to explore his mouth more openly, tangling his tongue with her own. She moved her hands to his chest, her fingers nimbly working to unbutton his shirt. Unsatisfied with how long it was taking to get them undone, she let out an impatient groan. Ulquiorra grabbed both sides of the shirt and ripped it open, causing the buttons to fly everywhere. As she listened to the sound of them hitting the floor, Orihime reached out to touch his chest.

Last night had been such a flurry of events that they didn't get a chance to actually look at one another. But now, Orihime was looking at Ulquiorra, and he was gorgeous. Her imagination could never have conjured up what she saw in front of her: Ulquiorra with his shirt hanging open, his chest rising and falling with heavy breaths, and his eyes bright with excitement. Just looking at him sent a myriad of emotions through her: love, lust, wonder. How could someone as magnificent as him be with her? She didn't realize that he saw her in just the same way.

Ulquiorra pressed his lips to hers, tangling his fingers in her long, orange locks. Orihime worked her hands down his body, tracing over his well-defined stomach muscles, down to the waistband of his jeans, unbuttoning them. As she started to pull them from his hips, Ulquiorra pushed her away from him, far enough so he could look into her eyes.

Trying to reclaim his lips, a whine escaped Orihime's chest. Holding her in place, Ulquiorra began to speak, "Are you sure you want to do this again, Orihime? I will not continue until I am sure that you consent to this." Orihime almost rolled her eyes at his silly question. Placing her lips an inch away from his, she quietly answered, "I want this. I want you."

Her answer sent lust coursing through Ulquiorra's body. Unable to control it anymore, he grabbed the back of her head and crushed her lips to his. He moved his right arm to encircle her waist, and lifted her. Flipping their positions, Ulquiorra set Orihime on the counter, all the while keeping their lips together. Orihime brought her hands down to the waistband of his jeans again, this time moving down as far as she could until Ulquiorra took over for her, effectively ridding himself of the annoying clothing. Wrapping her legs around his waist, she pulled him to her, stopping when she could feel him right at her entrance. Pulling back from her mouth, he gave her one final questioning look before he thrust into her.

Orihime cried out as she felt him inside of her. Last night she had felt pain, but today she only felt pleasure. She had expected him to stop and wait for her to say continue, but it seemed he had other plans. Ulquiorra pulled almost completely out of her and then thrust back into her, harder than the first time. Orihime moaned as he continues his movements, each one pushing her closer to the edge of the cliff that was her orgasm. She could feel him getting close as well, could feel him starting to swell inside of her. Calling out her name, Ulquiorra hit his climax. The sound of her name in his lips and the feeling of his fluids filling her sent Orihime over the edge. Her muscles clenched around him and she screamed out his name.

After the waves of pleasure passed, Ulquiorra lifted her from the counter. Ignoring his clothes and her sheet on the floor, he carried her into the bathroom. Turning the tap on, he filled the bath up and then set Orihime into it. Climbing in behind her, he pulled her back until she sat nestled between his legs and leaning back against his chest. Orihime closed her eyes as she let the warm water work out any soreness that could have been left over from their actions.

Opening her eyes, she looked into the eyes of the one she loved, hoping this moment would never end.


End file.
